Managing the complexities of modern data management requires more than just tools; it requires an integrated and comprehensive approach. This is where Microsoft Purview steps in. With digital transformation and hybrid work environments, it's critical to effectively govern, protect, and manage data across multiple platforms. This article explores the world of Microsoft Purview. It will explain what it is, why it is important and how it allows organizations to gain advanced visibility and control over their data, in addition to dealing with Microsoft Purview Information Protection. From data classification and lifecycle management to security and compliance capabilities, Microsoft Purview offers a versatile and powerful solution. Let's review together the capabilities of Microsoft Purview and how it can optimize data governance and security efforts.
Microsoft Purview offers a full range of tools for managing, protecting, and governing data, regardless of its location.
By addressing the problem of data fragmentation and improving visibility, Purview solutions reduce governance and data protection challenges. In addition, they adapt to changes in traditional IT management roles, ensuring an integrated and comprehensive approach.
Microsoft Purview integrates the functionality of previous Azure Purview and Microsoft 365 compliance solutions into a single platform, designed to help organizations:
Microsoft Purview offers organizations a tool for data governance and security across their entire information landscape. It provides comprehensive data governance solutions, allowing data services to be managed in a variety of environments, including on-premises, multicloud, and SaaS. This suite of solutions supports storage services on Azure, Power BI, databases such as SQL and Hive, as well as file services such as Amazon S3, among others.
Key components of these solutions include:
Together, these tools provide an integrated approach to data governance, ensuring effective management and optimal data protection across various platforms.
These tools allow your organization to
The new Microsoft Purview portal has been renewed to optimize data security and governance, making them simpler and more efficient. With an updated design, the portal offers a unified interface, a better information architecture, and simplified navigation through the various Microsoft Purview solutions.
Data is crucial for businesses, but with the increase in hybrid work and digital transformation, it has become scattered across different applications, services, and cloud environments. This fragmentation makes it difficult to manage data, with about half of it not visible or controllable.
Privacy regulations, such as the GDPR, require a proactive approach to data protection. Non-compliance may result in penalties, loss of customers, and revocation of licenses. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, for example, requires some data to be kept for seven years. Ignoring these requirements increases security risks and non-compliance.
The growth of data across different locations is a challenge for businesses. The use of multiple devices and applications by employees continuously increases data production. Data is shared across various applications and organizations in a number of formats, such as email, instant messages, files in SharePoint and Teams, chats, channels, Viva Engage interactions, Power BI reports, and other applications.
Microsoft Purview provides a comprehensive suite of fully integrated compliance tools that enable organizations to understand, manage and protect their data within the M365 ecosystem. By using Purview, it is possible to improve data visibility and effectively apply classification measures.
In addition, Purview allows you to implement protection measures such as data loss prevention policies, aimed at avoiding the unintentional exposure of sensitive information, in addition to using encryption to protect data.
With advanced Insider Risk Management tools, Microsoft Purview makes it easy to identify and manage insider threats. It also supports organizations in meeting compliance requirements through dynamic retention strategies and comprehensive auditing and eDiscovery functions.
Microsoft Purview integrates AI-based data governance with the compliance and security risk management capabilities offered by Microsoft. This synergy provides a holistic strategy for improving business security and protecting sensitive data.
Purview streamlines business operations by facilitating data discovery, traceability, and traceability. These features allow users to easily locate and access organizational information, simplifying operations and reducing the risk of duplicate or redundant initiatives between different teams.
We have created the Infrastructure & Security team, focused on the Azure cloud, to better respond to the needs of our customers who involve us in technical and strategic decisions. In addition to configuring and managing the tenant, we also take care of:
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Microsoft presents Purview as a data governance platform designed for on-premises, multi-cloud and SaaS environments. It offers a real-time view of the data landscape, addressing data management challenges. Reducing duplicate and obsolete data and files allows users and teams to increase efficiency and achieve greater value.
Evolving from Azure Purview, Microsoft Purview offers three core capabilities: data mapping, data cataloguing, and data insights. It integrates the features of Azure Purview with Microsoft 365 compliance technology in a single, cohesive solution.
Let's see what Microsoft Purview offers below.
Microsoft Purview offers a number of features such as data loss prevention, information barriers, information protection, internal risk management, and privileged access management.
An additional advantage is its many built-in standard features, which guarantee quick returns and lay the foundation for creating customized policies over time. These capabilities help organizations discover, monitor, manage and protect sensitive data, thus maintaining a high level of data security.
Microsoft Purview offers an integrated data governance solution that covers on-premises, hybrid, and SaaS environments. It facilitates the mapping of the data landscape through automated discovery and allows the configuration and implementation of policies, access controls and classifications of sensitive data.
Microsoft Purview manages risks and ensures compliance by applying specific policies to files, emails, and Teams functionality. It provides detailed audit logs and tracking to monitor and verify regulatory compliance.
With Microsoft Purview, organizations can manage compliance risks and meet regulatory requirements. The platform includes tools such as Microsoft Purview Audit, Communication Compliance, Data Lifecycle Management, Compliance Manager, and eDiscovery to support these activities.
Microsoft Purview allows you to create an integrated data map that covers the organization's entire information assets.
Thanks to its automation capabilities, it is possible to manage metadata from different hybrid sources and apply classifications using predefined classifiers and Microsoft Information Protection sensitivity labels. This facilitates the process of identifying and marking sensitive information on SQL Server, Azure, Microsoft 365 and Power BI. In addition, Microsoft Purview supports the unification of all data and system catalogs through the Apache Atlas APIs.
The Microsoft Purview data catalog improves accessibility to data using both business and technical search terms. It includes a detailed business glossary and offers visualizations of tracing the origin of the data to follow the origin of the information. In addition, it provides essential metadata that assists data analysts in business intelligence, analysis, artificial intelligence, and machine learning activities.
Before implementing Copilot for Microsoft 365, you must use the functionality of Microsoft Purview. Once Copilot is active, users can explore it and use it to analyze and learn from the organization's data to which they have access. If access rights were not established and managed before Copilot was deployed, users could access unauthorized sensitive data. This inadequate management could affect the accuracy and relevance of the search results and queries generated by Copilot.
The Microsoft Purview Data Estate provides a comprehensive view of your data management processes, including:
Organizations can achieve a secure and compliant work environment through Microsoft Purview. By offering a structured framework for data compliance, Purview makes it easy to classify, enforce policies, and verify data use.
Microsoft Purview simplifies regulatory compliance, making it easier to adhere to standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, ISO, and others. It ensures that data within the Microsoft 365 suite, including Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Outlook, OneDrive, and others, is easily found and monitored. This functionality supports informed decisions and helps to consolidate trust with stakeholders.
In addition, Microsoft Purview provides advanced analytical tools that provide organizations with a detailed view of their data ecosystem. This allows you to track data flows, identify dependencies, and improve data management practices.
By integrating with the Azure ecosystem, including Azure Data Lake Storage and Azure Synapse Analytics, Purview takes a unified approach to data governance. This integration not only creates a cohesive platform but also optimizes the use of existing infrastructure investments on Azure.
Microsoft Purview provides numerous advanced features for data governance, but like all technologies, it is not exempt from limitations that are important to consider and knowing some specific details of its operation may be useful. Let's see what they are.
The eDiscovery and search options are designed to manage various legal aspects but to refine search results using multiple attributes, it is advisable to proceed by searching one parameter at a time and then combining the results obtained from the different searches to get a complete overview.
Searches on large datasets require significant processing time. For this reason, organizations with strict deadlines must plan their eDiscovery activities carefully.
In addition to the basic Microsoft Purview license, the costs include any additional expenses resulting from the use of technologies integrated into the solution. For example, using eDiscovery involves costs related to Azure storage and processing capacity, which are charged based on consumption.
Purview's research capabilities focus on Microsoft products, meaning that integration with non-Microsoft tools, such as Zoom, Google Drive, Slack, or Meta's Workplace, requires alternative solutions.
Later in this article, we'll dive into the cost aspects of Microsoft Purview.
Your information protection strategy must be based on business needs. For many organizations, it's crucial to comply with industry regulations, laws, and practices. In addition, it is imperative to protect proprietary data, including data related to specific projects.
Microsoft Purview Information Protection, formerly called Microsoft Information Protection, provides a solid framework and suite of tools for protecting sensitive data. This solution allows you to protect data across various cloud environments, applications and devices, thanks to its structured process and advanced capabilities.
Use Microsoft Purview Information Protection to manage sensitive information, identifying, classifying, protecting and controlling it, regardless of where it resides or moves.
Pinpointing the location of sensitive data is a challenge for many organizations. Microsoft Purview Information Protection offers advanced data classification tools, useful for accurately identifying and categorizing the large volume of data generated by a company. Thanks to visual representations, it is possible to obtain useful information, allowing effective policies for data protection and governance to be implemented and managed.
Understanding where sensitive data is located makes it easier to protect it. You can immediately start safeguarding your data using a combination of manual, predefined, and automated labeling methods.
The Microsoft Purview suite includes Information Protection features, but licensing requirements may vary depending on the specific features and configuration settings chosen.
The price of Microsoft Purview depends on the number of data sources scanned, the amount of data indexed, and the volume of API requests. Organizations can start with a free plan with limits on data sources and API requests; beyond these limits, costs will be based on usage. The total expense will depend on the size of the data catalog and the usage models.
In addition to the cost of Microsoft Purview, there may be additional costs for storing data in Azure or integrating with other services. These costs will vary based on the organization's specific use. For an accurate assessment of the total cost of ownership, it is recommended that you review the Microsoft Purview pricing details.
In budget planning and cost management, consider both direct and indirect expenses.
In the context of Microsoft Purview, additional costs for traditional data governance solutions may result from Event Hubs namespaces. These namespaces can be configured during their creation or enabled through the Kafka configuration section in the Azure portal to support the monitoring of Atlas Kafka topic events. Please note that separate fees will apply for Event Hubs.
In classic Microsoft Purview data governance solutions, Azure private endpoints are used to allow secure access to the catalog through a private link for users connected through a virtual network. The prerequisites for configuring private endpoints may involve additional costs, for example, if you implement a virtual network.
Configuring a Self-hosted Integration Runtime (SHIR) involves additional costs due to the necessary infrastructure. It must be distributed and registered within the same virtual network as the Microsoft Purview private ingestion endpoints. In addition, there are additional expenses related to the memory needed for scanning operations.
To scan data sources such as SAP, it will be necessary to allocate more memory to the Self-hosted Integration Runtime (SHIR) machine. To ensure efficient performance, it is advisable to carefully plan the size of virtual machines (VMs) to distribute scanning tasks across multiple VMs, optimizing the use of v-cores. In addition, Microsoft Purview Information Protection can automatically apply sensitivity labels to Azure resources through the Microsoft Purview Data Map.
The creation and management of sensitivity labels for Microsoft Purview Information Protection is managed within the Microsoft Purview compliance portal. An active Microsoft 365 license is required to create sensitivity labels in Microsoft Purview, as it enables automatic labeling capabilities. For details on available licenses, see the FAQ on Sensitivity Labels in Microsoft Purview.
Using data from Azure Monitor, Azure Alerts can alert customers to problems with their infrastructure or applications. In addition, Azure automatically generates cost alerts to monitor usage and expense, being activated when Azure resources are used.
In Azure, you can create and manage budgets. When scanning data sources from other cloud providers, such as AWS or Google, it's important to pay attention to the exit costs—minimal expenses associated with a multicloud subscription. Note that these costs apply to native services, but not to S3 and RDS sources.
The direct costs of Microsoft Purview vary based on the specific functionality and use of the data governance components:
For an accurate estimate of overall costs, it is recommended to consult the Azure pricing calculator and, if necessary, consult an Azure specialist, such as Dev4Side, to obtain a quote customized to your organization's requirements.
Microsoft Purview is a key solution for modern data management, essential to address the challenges of today's organizations. With the adoption of hybrid and multicloud frameworks, the need for an integrated platform for data governance, protection, and compliance emerges. Microsoft Purview offers advanced cataloging, classification, and data lifecycle management functions, improving oversight and management of resources.
As we have seen, this solution also has some limitations, but its strengths in protecting sensitive data, complying with compliance and streamlining management are noteworthy.
For businesses, it represents a powerful and versatile solution, offering greater control over data environments and facilitating informed decisions. As complexity and volume of data increase, it remains a crucial component for effective and integrated governance.
Microsoft Purview is a comprehensive data governance solution that integrates features from Azure Purview and Microsoft 365 compliance tools. It allows organizations to manage, protect, and gain insights across on-premises, multi-cloud, and SaaS data environments.
Microsoft Purview is essential for businesses facing data fragmentation due to hybrid work and digital transformation. It helps address data visibility challenges and ensures compliance with regulations like GDPR, which is crucial for avoiding penalties and maintaining security.
Microsoft Purview provides data cataloging, mapping, and advanced insights. It includes security tools like data loss prevention, risk management, privileged access controls, and audit capabilities that support data classification, tracking, and secure access.
Microsoft Purview enhances security by enabling data loss prevention, managing internal risks, and implementing information barriers. These features allow organizations to secure sensitive data and create custom data protection policies.
Microsoft Purview facilitates data governance across hybrid and multi-cloud environments by automating data discovery, enforcing policies, and classifying sensitive information. It includes tools for auditing, lifecycle management, and regulatory compliance.
With Microsoft Purview, organizations can create an integrated data map of all assets, automate metadata management, and apply sensitivity labels. It connects data catalogs across platforms and enhances data traceability and classification.
The data catalog within Microsoft Purview improves data accessibility by supporting business and technical search terms, creating a detailed business glossary, and enabling data origin tracking, which is beneficial for analytics and machine learning.
Before activating Copilot, Microsoft Purview helps establish access rights to sensitive data, ensuring that Copilot’s data processing respects user permissions. This preparation helps maintain data security and relevance in search results.
Microsoft Purview enables secure and compliant data management, enhances data visibility, reduces redundancy, and improves efficiency. It supports a secure work environment, ensuring data protection and compliance across organizational data landscapes.
The Infra & Security team focuses on the management and evolution of our customers' Microsoft Azure tenants. Besides configuring and managing these tenants, the team is responsible for creating application deployments through DevOps pipelines. It also monitors and manages all security aspects of the tenants and supports Security Operations Centers (SOC).
