Why so many businesses are moving off the domain
Active Directory and Group Policy were designed for PCs that stay in the office. Once people take laptops home, policies stop updating, password changes cause sync problems and the domain controller becomes another server to patch, back up and eventually replace.
If email, files and Teams already live in Microsoft 365, the domain controller is often doing very little except logins and a few policies, and Intune can do both.
What a move to Intune looks like
We usually move a business in stages, so nobody loses a working day:
- Review existing Group Policies and rebuild the ones that still matter in Intune.
- Move file shares to SharePoint and OneDrive, or keep a file server that does not need the domain.
- Re-enroll PCs as Entra ID joined with Autopilot, a few at a time.
- Turn on Conditional Access so only managed, compliant PCs reach company data.
- Retire the domain controller once nothing depends on it.
When to stay hybrid for now
Some line-of-business software, older file servers and on-site systems still expect a domain. In that case, PCs can be joined to both Active Directory and Entra ID and managed by Intune, while the domain keeps those older systems working. It is a common stepping stone rather than a permanent state.