2016 Essentials Integration: Manage Exchange Active Sync Policies

Assuming you have already setup integration to Azure AD and Office 365, you should be able to start applying Exchange Active Sync policies to your mobile devices. Now, the way to add a mobile device into your Dashboard is really quite simple. Just add an Office 365 email account to your mobile device.

Navigate to the Devices section of the Dashboard, and select Mobile Devices. If it doesn’t show up right away, click the Refresh link on the right–it can take some time to appear if you’ve just added it. Now you have some handy options for managing your mobile devices on the right.

Click on Modify the device policy, and you will be presented with a place to set up password, access and encryption requirements. I have configured a policy below.

The Access Rules tab just allows you to block certain devices by family or model.

You can also block and/or wipe a particular device from the Dashboard. Note that the wipe feature is a FULL wipe, meaning a factory reset, and complete loss of data.

So far, the options we’ve explored do not rely on enabling any further MDM features in Office 365, or a subscription to Microsoft’s Intune service.  They are available directly from any version Microsoft Exchange by default. If you go to the Exchange admin center from the Office 365 Admin portal, you will be able to navigate to mobile on the left, then mobile device mailbox policies on the top. Edit the Default policy and select security to see the policy you configured from your Essentials Dashboard.

If you need to be able to get more granular with your security policies, or you would like the ability to selectively wipe only corporate data, for example, then you will need to consider enabling MDM for Office 365, or even upgrading into a full Intune subscription–I lay out the differences for you here. Next time we will explore the (lackluster) Essentials Dashboard integration for Intune.