Microsoft opens up Intune beta to 10,000 more testers

Reacting to the success of its launch in April, Microsoft on Monday said it would allow 10,000 more testers into its Intune computer management service. The offering gives small and midsize companies without a vast IT department the capability to manage their computers via a web-based connection.

When the Intune beta was first made available in April, the initial 1,500 beta slots were filled within 30 hours. The company decided to hold off until this weeks Worldwide Partner Conference to open up the beta again due to the gathering's planned focus on cloud computing.

Intune fits perfectly into this strategy. Microsoft would host the administration console on its servers. From here, the IT administrator would log in and be able to patch, monitor, and troubleshoot a networked PC without needing to physically be at that location.

The initial beta was only available in the US: this second beta will expand that list of countries to Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain, and the UK. Testers would be limited to controlling between 5 and 25 seats in the beta.

A final version of the software is expected in the early part of next year, and would cost $11 per seat. For an additional dollar, Microsoft would allow additional functions to assist in troubleshooting and group policy management.

Microsoft has been fairly busy when it comes to betas as of late. The company released another cloud service -- code-named "Aurora" -- into beta at WPC, and a beta of the first service pack for Windows Server 2008 R2 is live. Consumers aren't left out either: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 was also released.