Businesses are facing mounting pressure to protect sensitive information, prove compliance, and maintain productivity—all at once. Microsoft Purview has emerged as a unified platform designed to meet this challenge, offering integrated tools for data governance, risk management, and compliance across Microsoft 365, Azure, and third-party environments.
Why Microsoft Purview?
Microsoft Purview is more than just a compliance tool—it’s a comprehensive, cloud-native platform for end-to-end data governance and protection. Whether your organization is working to meet GDPR, HIPAA, CMMC, or internal corporate policies, Purview empowers you to discover, classify, secure, and govern data—no matter where it lives.
With a unified interface, IT and compliance teams can apply sensitivity labels, enforce data loss prevention policies, monitor insider risk, and respond to audits quickly. The redesigned Purview portal now makes this even easier, surfacing relevant tools based on user roles and permissions with intuitive navigation and access to a built-in Knowledge Center.
What’s New in the Microsoft Purview Portal
In late 2024, Microsoft officially retired the legacy compliance portal in favor of a modern, role-driven experience. The new Purview interface simplifies workflows, offering a focused home screen and only surfacing solutions relevant to the user’s responsibilities.
You’ll also notice an integrated search bar for faster navigation and a new Knowledge Center that provides learning content, including videos, blogs, and Microsoft Learn links. The unified settings page—reminiscent of the Microsoft Defender XDR portal—gives administrators streamlined access to configuration controls across the compliance ecosystem.
Core capabilities of Microsoft Purview
Data classification and sensitivity labeling
Sensitivity labels allow organizations to embed protection directly into content. Labels define encryption, access permissions, and usage restrictions, traveling with data no matter where it’s stored or shared. These labels are essential in a modern compliance strategy, whether applied manually or automatically.
With recent enhancements, Purview now supports on-demand classification, enabling retroactive labeling and protection of legacy data—an important safeguard as generative AI tools begin surfacing and analyzing older content.
Learn more about Microsoft Purview.
Information protection at scale
Using automation and built-in machine learning, Microsoft Purview reduces the burden on users by suggesting or applying labels based on context. Administrators can define default behaviors and tailor label availability by department or role. This ensures consistent policy enforcement while giving users a seamless experience across Microsoft 365 apps.
Learn more about Microsoft Purview Information Protection.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
DLP policies can now be applied across various workloads—including email, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, endpoints, Power BI and Microsoft Fabric. Policies can block sharing, restrict access, or alert administrators when sensitive data is at risk. A significant improvement is the ability to prioritize policy execution, so critical DLP rules take precedence when multiple conditions are met.
Learn more about Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention.
Insider Risk Management
Purview’s Insider Risk Management helps detect risky or anomalous behavior—such as unusual file downloads, access to new departments’ data, or activity following a resignation notice. It integrates with HR systems and even physical access controls, enabling forensic-level insight into suspicious actions. This capability helps reduce the potential damage of insider threats, whether malicious or unintentional.
Learn more about Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management.
Compliance Manager
Organizations can assess their compliance posture against regulations like NIST, CMMC, and ISO using built-in scoring, action tracking, and automated testing.
Compliance roles are now more granular, with role-based access for readers, contributors, and assessors. Administrators can assign improvement actions to the right teams, export audit-ready reports, and align policies with evolving requirements.
Learn more about Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager.
Retention and records management
Retention policies and labels allow organizations to comply with both regulatory mandates and internal data lifecycle strategies. You can define organization-wide policies (e.g., delete Teams content after 18 months) and layer on file plan labels for exceptions, such as legal holds or records with extended retention needs. These capabilities support automation, auditing, and traceability—essential for industries with strict data governance requirements.
Learn more about Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management.
Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)
DSPM brings visibility into AI-related risks. With DSPM for AI, organizations can evaluate how sensitive data is accessed by tools like Copilot and enforce guardrails to prevent inappropriate exposure. The system highlights overshared content, shows encryption gaps, and provides fast ways to create policies using pre-configured templates.
DSPM also offers activity tracking, making it easier to monitor Copilot usage and understand how data flows within your organization in real-time.
Final Thoughts
Microsoft Purview is the cornerstone of a modern compliance and information protection strategy. With a unified interface, deep integrations across the Microsoft ecosystem, and powerful capabilities like automated labeling, DLP, and insider risk management, Purview helps organizations govern data with confidence.
But tools alone don’t drive success—people, processes, and guidance matter just as much. That’s where Synergy Technical comes in. Whether you’re getting started or looking to mature your compliance program, we’re here to help you maximize the value of Microsoft Purview—securely, responsibly, and strategically.
Discover how Microsoft Purview can help your organization simplify compliance, reduce risk, and protect sensitive data across cloud and hybrid environments. Get guided access to Purview’s tools, tailored insights for your business, and expert advice to help you plan next steps with confidence.
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