Has anyone used Ivanti Neurons for a zero-touch device deployment experience? The goal is for an organization to purchase devices through normal retail or distribution channels, have them shipped directly to employees, and let the employee sign in with their organizational account from on-premises Active Directory without an administrator needing to configure the device first. How well does Ivanti support this workflow, and what has your experience been?
3 Answers
For the out-of-box experience you described, Windows Autopilot with Intune is generally the better fit. The device can be shipped directly to the employee, and after they connect to the internet, the organization’s policies and applications are applied during setup. Ivanti can still be installed afterward if you need its endpoint management features, but it usually is not the component that provides the initial zero-touch enrollment.
Ivanti licensing and product capabilities can be confusing, so verify the exact Neurons modules and enrollment requirements before planning the rollout. Some organizations have moved from Ivanti to Intune and found the deployment experience simpler, especially for cloud-managed Windows devices.
Which Ivanti product are you considering? Ivanti has several platforms. Ivanti Endpoint Manager can handle deployments, but a typical setup uses a prepared image containing the agent. A more modern approach is to use Windows Autopilot with Intune for the initial enrollment, then install the Ivanti Neurons agent during setup and let Ivanti handle later deployment tasks. A completely user-driven enrollment may be difficult unless the device is first enrolled in an MDM such as Intune.
I was specifically asking about Ivanti Neurons and whether it can provide an experience similar to Windows Autopilot.
That lines up with our experience. We moved away from Ivanti and have had a smoother time managing devices with Intune.