Microsoft 365 Compliance Tools

Microsoft Purview can help with data discovery, information protection, data loss prevention and governance. It enables organisations to find, classify, protect and manage data across Microsoft 365 and on-premises file stores, giving you a unified view of where sensitive information lives and how it is being used throughout your environment.

Microsoft Purview follows a continuous cycle to manage and protect your organisation’s data, covering discovery, classification, protection, data loss prevention, governance and ongoing review. Each stage feeds into the next, so as new data is created or regulatory obligations change, the protections and policies applied to your information evolve alongside them rather than being set once and forgotten. The diagram below illustrates how each stage connects.

Data discovery in Microsoft Purview is the process of automatically finding and classifying sensitive information across your environment. Microsoft 365 workloads can dynamically discover and classify data and apply protection and data leakage prevention. Microsoft Purview Information Scanner can also inspect on-premises file stores and classify, label and protect files according to company requirements.

Information Protection in Microsoft Purview uses sensitivity labels to secure access and prevent oversharing or inadvertent sharing of sensitive data. Labels can be applied automatically based on content, recommended to users, or applied manually, and they travel with the file so that protection persists even when documents are shared outside your organisation.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) in Microsoft Purview assists users in their everyday sharing of information by preventing accidental disclosure of data, either through visual guidance or enforcement via policy. DLP policies can warn users before they share sensitive content, block the action entirely, or quietly log the event for review, depending on your organisation’s risk appetite.

Microsoft Purview supports data governance by allowing organisations to retain and delete data and records in line with regulatory, compliance and legal obligations. Retention policies can be applied automatically based on content type, location or sensitivity, ensuring that information is kept for as long as it is needed and then disposed of defensibly.

No. Whether you are starting from scratch or already partially utilising Microsoft Purview, Evolve North can help. We provide guidance on initial design and configuration for new deployments, as well as periodic service reviews for existing implementations to ensure the environment continues to meet your compliance and data protection needs as they evolve.

Yes. Evolve North can work with you to ensure your Microsoft Purview environment is effectively designed to reflect your regulatory, compliance and legal obligations. We will work with you to uncover risk and take action, whether that means deploying Purview for the first time, extending an existing configuration, or fixing issues with a deployment that has not delivered the expected outcomes.

A Microsoft Purview service review from Evolve North assesses the current configuration and usage against your current and upcoming regulatory, compliance and legal obligations. We recommend these reviews every 6 to 12 months, so that any gaps caused by changing data volumes, new regulations or organisational change can be identified and addressed before they become compliance issues.