Businesses that deal with huge amounts of data can struggle to keep it organized and secure while remaining compliant.

Fortunately, Microsoft Purview can help in this regard.

This tool helps you understand where your data is within the organization, how it’s being used, and how to safeguard it from threats, whether it’s stored in the cloud, on your servers, or in different software.

In this article, we will explore what Microsoft Purview does and how it can help your business manage data easily.

Understanding Microsoft Purview

With Microsoft Purview, you can manage business data, remain compliant with industry regulations, and protect sensitive information.

It combines different features from tools like

• Microsoft Compliance Manager
• Insider Risk Management
• Azure Purview enables businesses to manage their data and security in one place.

Microsoft Purview works with other Microsoft products, such as Microsoft 365, Azure, Dynamics 365, and Power BI. It helps you manage your data, security, and compliance using the tools in your current tech stack.

For example, you can use Power BI to create reports based on trusted, properly labeled data so sensitive information stays protected. Purview can also automatically encrypt messages that contain sensitive data in Microsoft Teams, following data loss prevention (DLP) rules.

Using Microsoft Purview will help you keep business data safe and organized without disrupting your daily work.

Features of Microsoft Purview

Here are some of the main features of Microsoft Purview.

Data discovery and classification

Microsoft Purview automatically scans and catalogs data in your digital space. This includes data you store on Microsoft 365, Google Cloud, Amazon AWS, etc. It classifies sensitive information, health data, and financial data and labels information based on its level of sensitivity and compliance needs.

Unified data map

The data map forms the heart of Microsoft Purview’s governance features; It provides a central space where our data inventory is stored. From the data map, you can access classification tags and other metadata. The data map also manages technical and operational metadata, which helps to support quality.

Compliance manager

This feature allows businesses to assess their compliance standards against international standards like GDPR, HIPAA, and others. The platform has built-in templates that can help you evaluate compliance gaps in your business and provide insights to improve compliance scores and reduce or avoid any regulatory risks.

Information protection

With Microsoft Information Protection (MIP), Purview applies labels that oversee data encryption, data loss prevention policies, and access restrictions. It also ensures that protection policies are employed across SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, and others.

Insider Risk Management

Microsoft Purview uses behavioral analytics to identify and address potential insider threats. The user activity monitoring feature also tracks suspicious behavior, such as policy violations. This platform completely protects user privacy while ensuring compliance integrity.

Data loss prevention (DLP)

With this platform, businesses can avoid losing data by applying layer rules to detect and block data leaks via email and cloud storage. It also provides real-time alerts so that you can respond to data leak incidents promptly.

Why do you need Microsoft Purview?

Now that you know what you can gain from Microsoft Purview, let’s explore why it is an important addition to organizations and businesses.

Regulatory pressures

As data privacy laws tighten globally, compliance is non-negotiable, but Microsoft Purview simplifies the entire process by offering regular assessment and reporting. This helps you meet deadlines and regulatory requirements without much effort.

Need for centralized data

Businesses or corporate organizations store their data across various platforms, formats, and locations. However, without a central point where they can view everything at a single glance, it can be difficult to manage data effectively. Purview addressed this issue by providing a data map and classification tools, allowing users to track every kind of data to its location based on format and how it is used.

Security and risk mitigation

Data breaches have crippling effects on businesses, whether from an insider or an external source. With Purview’s risk management, you can detect abnormal activities, enforce protection policies, and take steps to prevent data loss before it happens.

Operational efficiency

Data governance is typically a difficult topic in digital activities, but Purview simplifies the process by automating classification and compliance tasks. It reduces the need for an administrative head and allows IT teams to focus on strategic plans and innovations.

Improved data literacy

When employees can easily trace and find data, decision-making becomes much easier. Microsoft Purview improves data literacy by granting users access to well-documented and classified data assets. Users can link one piece of data to another, bringing understanding to the entire system.

Who can benefit from Microsoft Purview?

Industries that deal with large amounts of data consistently can use Microsoft’s Purview as there is always a need to oversee and manage data and keep it accessible to the right people. Here are some industries that benefit from Purview:

Healthcare

Purview protects patients’ data and classifies different information concerning them, such as financial data, health records, doctors’ diagnoses, and others. It also ensures that only authorized personnel have access to sensitive data, which in turn protects the patient’s image. Purview also ensures that healthcare establishments meet HIPAA regulatory standards through prompt alerts of deadlines.

Education

Microsoft Purview secures student records and improves data transparency, allowing teachers and other authorized personnel to access any information about a student.

IT and security teams

With Purview, IT teams can manage data using data maps, especially in complex hybrid environments where data from different locations and formats clash.

Finance

You can secure your financial records using Purview’s classification tools. These tools can tag certain financial data as sensitive and collate all data related to that file or folder into one pathway. It also ensures that finance organizations comply with SOX and PCI-DSS regulatory bodies.

Wrapping Up

Data can be an asset and a liability depending on how well it is managed. Microsoft Purview is a great solution for gaining control over a business’ data sphere. With advanced data governance and robust compliance efforts, your business can work more efficiently and transparently.

Microsoft Purview is not just a nice tool to have, but a strategic one that can determine how well your business runs and how much it can trust you.