Have you noticed that as your organization has grown, so has the amount of content your team produces and uploads into Microsoft 365? You’re not alone. With billions of new documents being added per day, many organizations are grappling with the challenges of managing this explosive growth.
The sheer volume of content can lead to logistical headaches, security vulnerabilities, and compliance risks. Controlling access, managing permissions, and enforcing regulations have become increasingly difficult in this sprawling digital landscape.
Until recently, the governance tools within SharePoint and Microsoft 365 weren’t sufficient to manage this complexity. However, that’s all changed with the introduction of SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM), which now comes as part of your Copilot license (Ignite 24). This powerful set of tools empowers you to regain control over content sprawl and enhance governance within your Microsoft 365 environment.
In this blog, we’ll explore the key challenges you might be facing today and how SAM can help you overcome them.
The Challenges of Content Sprawl and Governance in Microsoft 365
Content Sprawl
Microsoft 365 and SharePoint have made it easier than ever for your users to create new sites and share content. While this boosts collaboration and productivity, it’s come with a downside: content sprawl.
Over time, you’ll find yourself managing an increasing number of SharePoint sites with content scattered across them—some of which is redundant or outdated.
This sprawl complicates content management and leads to higher storage costs due to duplicated and dispersed content.
For Microsoft 365 administrators, it often feels like an uphill battle, where you’re consuming more time in managing these sites than focusing on strategic initiatives like improving user experience or enhancing security.
Insufficient Governance Tools
Before SAM, the governance tools available within Microsoft 365 lacked the depth required to monitor content sharing and permissions in real-time. Enforcing security policies was a significant challenge, leaving your sensitive company data vulnerable to oversharing and exposing compliance risks.
Permission management was also particularly tricky. Users could accidentally overshare content or break permission inheritance, resulting in sensitive data being accessible to unauthorized individuals.
Compliance and Regulatory Pressure
With regulations such as GDPR and CCPA placing greater emphasis on data accountability, you’re under increasing pressure to manage sensitive information securely.
Keeping up with compliance requirements has become incredibly challenging, especially when thousands of documents are added to SharePoint every year. Without robust governance tools and real-time reporting, the risk of compliance violations grows significantly.
Impact of Content Sprawl and Insufficient Governance Tools
For Microsoft 365 admins, content sprawl and insufficient governance tools have resulted in several operational headaches:
- Time-Consuming Site Management: Manually managing permissions, storage quotas, and site lifecycles now consumes hours that could be better spent on strategic work.
- Increased Security Risks: Over-permissioning and weak governance expose sensitive information, creating vulnerabilities that can be exploited.
- Compliance Risks: With newer regulations, you’re facing increasing pressure to comply with regulations, which, if not met, can lead to fines or reputational damage for your organization.
Enter SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM)
Recognizing the growing complexity of content management, Microsoft has introduced SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM), a premium set of governance features designed to address these challenges head-on.
SAM provides advanced tools to control content sprawl, enforce security policies, and ensure compliance. Let’s take a look…
Key Features of SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM)
SAM focuses on content governance and site lifecycle management—areas where traditional SharePoint tools have often fallen short.
Here’s how SAM tackles these challenges:
Advanced Access Policies
- Restrict Access at Scale: SAM allows you to restrict access to SharePoint sites based on Microsoft 365 or security groups. This is crucial for locking down highly sensitive sites, even if a user has a shared link.
- OneDrive Content Control: Extend similar control to OneDrive content, ensuring that shared files are only accessible to authorized individuals within specific security groups.
- Data Access Governance (DAG) Reports: DAG reports help you identify overshared or sensitive content, allowing you to address security risks proactively.
Site Lifecycle Management
- Inactive Site Management: Identify and manage inactive sites, reducing content sprawl and saving on storage costs. Automated notifications are sent to site owners, providing options for archiving or deleting inactive sites.
- AI-Driven Insights: SAM’s AI identifies high-storage and inactive sites, offering actionable insights to help you make informed decisions on content management.
- Automated Policies: Implement automated policies to handle inactive sites, reducing clutter and optimizing storage.
Real-Time Security Controls
- Conditional Access and Sensitivity Labels: Integrate SAM with Microsoft Purview to enforce stricter access controls based on sensitivity labels. This ensures that your high-value content is always secure and accessible only to authorized users.
- Blocking File Downloads: Prevent file downloads from SharePoint and OneDrive sites to ensure sensitive documents remain protected within the browser, reducing the risk of unauthorized distribution.
Change History Tracking
- Audit Site Changes: Track changes made to SharePoint sites and organizational settings over the past 180 days. This offers critical visibility into who made changes and when, enhancing accountability and security.
How SAM Addresses Compliance Challenges
SAM’s compliance capabilities, particularly through sensitivity labels, conditional access policies, and data governance tools, help you meet regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
Here’s how:
- Sensitivity Labels: Classify and protect sensitive information by applying labels that enforce encryption and restrict access.
- Conditional Access Policies: Implement policies that require multi-factor authentication or block access based on location, device, or user risk level.
- Data Governance Tools: Use tools like retention labels and policies to manage the lifecycle of content, ensuring data is retained or deleted in compliance with regulations.
Practical Tips for Using SharePoint Advanced Management
To maximize the benefits of SAM, consider the following practical tips:
- Explore Trial Options: Microsoft is currently offering a 30-day free trial period for SAM. Use this time to address specific governance or sprawl issues without any upfront costs.
- Utilize Simulation Mode: Before fully activating policies, run them in simulation mode. This allows you to fine-tune policies and assess their impact without immediately affecting users.
- Optimize Storage Management: SAM’s inactive site management is particularly useful if you’re nearing storage limits, allowing you to clean up unnecessary sites
- Leverage AI-Driven Recommendations: Take advantage of SAM’s AI features that provide insights and recommend optimal security and governance policies based on patterns identified in your organization’s content.
- Implement Automated Policies: Set up automated policies for site lifecycle management to reduce manual workload and maintain a clean, efficient environment.
- Monitor with DAG Reports: Regularly review Data Access Governance reports to stay ahead of potential security risks and address oversharing promptly.
Managing content sprawl and ensuring robust governance in Microsoft 365 doesn’t have to be an uphill battle. With SharePoint Advanced Management, you now have the tools to regain control over your content, enhance security, and ensure compliance with evolving regulations.
By leveraging SAM’s advanced features—such as advanced access policies, site lifecycle management, real-time security controls, and change history tracking—you can streamline your IT operations, reduce risks, and focus on strategic initiatives that drive your organization forward.
How to Use SAM for Site Lifecycle Management
For practical advice and ways to use SAM for Site Lifecycle Management, head over to my personal blog, where I walk through how to set the policy scope, select site types and filters, and finalize and name the policy. Plus, I explain how to use simulation mode for testing and insights and how to enable active mode for monthly monitoring.
For a deeper dive and demo of how to use SAM, watch my presentation for M365 User Group of DC that I shared recently.
***
Take back control of your Microsoft 365 environment today!
Don’t let content sprawl and governance challenges slow you down. Get in touch with team Cloudwell to find out how SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM) can streamline your operations, ensure compliance, and enhance your security—all while reducing your IT workloads.