Best practices for migrating from SCCM to Intune in 2025
Alright, let’s cut through the noise. It’s mid-2025, Windows 10’s funeral bells are ringing, and if you’re still clinging to Configuration Manager (SCCM), you’re running out of runway. Having shepherded more migrations than I care to count, I’ll give it to you straight: this isn’t about ticking boxes. It’s about modernising your estate without setting your helpdesk on fire. Here’s how to navigate it.
Start with co-management: dip your toe, don’t dive
Ripping out SCCM tomorrow? Madness. Co-management is your safety net. Hybrid join your devices, flip on the Intune connector, and shift workloads, updates, compliance, apps, gradually. You keep the SCCM agent running, so nothing implodes overnight. But heed this: audit your Intune policies before enrolling a single device. Anything scoped to “All Users” or “All Devices” (looking at you, Windows Hello for Business) will light up like a Christmas tree. Suddenly, your CFO’s locked out because they ignored a PIN prompt. Not a career highlight.
Pilot like a cynic: assume everything will break
Start with disposable devices. Not the CEO’s laptop. Why? Intune policies can “tattoo” machines, registry tweaks that stick like glue. Reversing them often means nuking the OS and starting fresh.
Once you’ve proven basics like Wi-Fi and BitLocker won’t brick your test rig, expand to a pilot group. Enlist tech-savvy users, but keep IT out initially. If the admins’ devices go sideways, who’s left to fix the carnage?
Updates: let Microsoft do the heavy lifting
If you’ve got M365 E3/E5, Windows Autopatch is your golden ticket. Microsoft handles testing, scheduling, and deployment using telemetry from millions of devices. It’s ruthlessly efficient. No Autopatch? Windows Update for Business (WUfB) works perfectly well, ditch WSUS and deploy rings via Intune. But test updates exclusively on Autopilot-built devices first. Pushing untested patches estate-wide is how 3 a.m. emergencies happen.
Policies: burn the GPOs, start anew
That Group Policy Analytics tool? Tempting, but don’t drag 15 years of tech debt into the cloud. Rebuild your policies from scratch. Prioritise core security: BitLocker, Defender, firewall. Layer user settings (Edge homepages, Outlook config) later. And a word on Microsoft’s built-in security baselines: they’re solid until you need a quick tweak and find yourself locked out until Microsoft’s next update cycle. Tools like DeployIntune deploy NCSC/CIS-compliant baselines in minutes—use them as foundations, then customise.
Application packaging: the necessary evil
Here’s where migrations stall. Every app, yes, even M365, needs repackaging as a Win32 .intunewin file. Dumping MSIs into Intune as “LoB apps” will murder Autopilot. Worse, apps install in system context, so scripts referencing “H:” or on-prem shares will fail spectacularly. For Office, build Win32 packages via the Office Deployment Tool for proper dependency handling. And test uninstalls religiously. The day you need to yank a broken app isn’t when you want to discover the uninstall script is borked. Tools like Algiz’s SCCM-to-Intune Migrator automate this drudgery, worth every penny for large estates.
The cloud-native reality check
Ready to ditch SCCM and go full Entra ID (née Azure AD)? Brace for these gotchas:
- Printers: Group Policy Preferences (GPP) are dead. Use Universal Print, script deployments, or third-party tools like PaperCut.
- File Shares: Still on-prem? Kerberos Cloud Trust is your bridge to Entra. Better yet, migrate to SharePoint/OneDrive.
- Wi-Fi: Push profiles via SCEP/NDES if you hate yourself. Cloud PKI solutions like SCEPman are saner.
Cutting the cord: do it deliberately
When SCCM’s client comes off, rebuild devices as Entra-joined. Bake this into your hardware refresh cycle. And back up your Intune config, EUCToolbox works, or let a managed service provider like Algiz technology handle it. Because if someone nukes a policy at 5 p.m. on Friday, you’ll want a parachute.
The bottom line
This isn’t a migration, it’s a chance to rebuild intelligently. Start now. Pilot in phases. Burn legacy GPOs. And never, ever let urgency override testing. October 2025 won’t wait, but rushing guarantees chaos. Modern management means fewer fires, happier admins, and an estate that doesn’t creak like a 1990s server room. Now get moving.
