Understand the Surface Management Portal

The Microsoft Intune admin center is where you can find the Microsoft Intune service and other device management related settings. Microsoft Intune provides the cloud infrastructure, cloud-based mobile device management (MDM), cloud-based mobile application management (MAM), and cloud-based PC management for your organization. Intune helps you ensure that your company's devices, apps, and data meet your company's security requirements. You have the control to set which requirements need to be checked and what happens when those requirements aren't met.

With relation to this course, you may find it useful to explore and familiarize yourself with the Intune admin center as the Surface Management Portal is built into the Intune admin center.

Overview of the Intune admin center

The Intune admin center serves as a comprehensive web portal for device management. Utilize this center to enroll users and groups, establish and administer policies, and utilize reporting data to oversee these policies. For those employing Configuration Manager tenant-attach or co-management, visibility into on-premises devices is provided, along with the capability to execute certain actions on these devices.

The admin center further integrates additional pivotal device management services, such as:

• Azure AD Privileged Identity Management for monitoring access to critical resources.

• Microsoft Tunnel VPN gateway solution, operational on Linux.

• Partnerships with mobile threat defense entities.

• Remote Help for providing remote assistance.

• TeamViewer for remote administration purposes.

• Windows 365 for managing Windows virtual machines.

• Windows Autopatch for streamlining updates.

You can explore the Intune Admin Center by following this Tutorial - Walkthrough the Microsoft Intune admin center.

Overview of the Surface Management Portal

As briefly mentioned earlier, the Surface Management Portal is built into the Microsoft Intune admin center. The Surface Management Portal provides a centralized solution to self-serve, manage, and monitor Surface devices at scale.

The Microsoft Surface Management Portal is a centralized platform designed for IT administrators to self-serve, manage, and monitor Surface devices across an organization at scale. It provides a comprehensive view of device compliance, support activity, and warranty coverage, allowing for efficient tracking and management of Surface devices. For detailed insights and management capabilities, IT administrators can access the portal by signing in to the admin center and navigating to All services > Surface Management Portal.

This portal is beneficial for overseeing the health and support status of Surface devices, ensuring that any issues are addressed promptly before impacting the help desk. It also facilitates access to warranty data and the status of support requests, streamlining the management process for IT administrators.

There are several areas to explore within the portal with relation to your Surface devices such as:

• Monitor : This area provides an overview of Surface devices, support requests, and warranty coverage in your organization.

• Warranty and coverage: This area allows you to manage all the warranty data associated with your Surface devices. You can use the information in this tab to plan for new devices and support requests.

• Support: This area is for self-service and troubleshooting, and tracks support activity.

For more information on an overview of the Surface Management Portal, see Overview of Microsoft Surface Management Portal.