We use the solution to defend endpoint workloads and prevent data loss. We also use it for governance.
Director of technology at a performing arts with 201-500 employees
Provides visibility across different platforms, but the quality of support must be improved
Pros and Cons
- "The time to onboard is pretty short."
- "The product must provide better integrations with OS X and iOS."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
One of the biggest benefits of the solution is visibility. Previously, we had a myriad of different solutions for compliance and to look at different workloads. Microsoft Purview brings all those things together in a very similar look and feel.
It also enables access management. We can provide an elevated privilege for a limited time. If the user needs privileged access, they can request it on an ad-hoc basis. We have workflows to provide access depending on different approval models. We can do all such things without elevating the risk posture.
What is most valuable?
The time to onboard is pretty short. It comes with a whole bunch of recommendations for somebody who has a small crew like me. It gives the ability to onboard the product and have a really good baseline to begin with. All I have to do is three or four clicks, and it's off and running. It is one of the greatest removers of barriers to entry. We have to be generalists, being a small shop. It's important for us to begin from a great place. Some other highlights compared to the competition are
- Unified Data Governance & Compliance
- Comprehensive Data Discovery & Cataloging
- Deep Azure Ecosystem Integration
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Insider Risk Management
- Role-Based Insights and Access Control
What needs improvement?
The tool's Windows PC offerings are far better compared to the granularity on the Mac side. The product must provide better integrations with OS X and iOS. There must be feature parity. The product must also provide better integrations with other ecosystems. I'd love to see Microsoft integrating with Google Workspace, at least in the EDU K-12 space. Most people in the EDU space use Google Workspace and Microsoft. Extending the capabilities of Purview would be phenomenal. to summarize,
- Limited functionality on macOS (e.g., sensitivity labels not fully supported in all Office apps)
- Inconsistent feature parity across platforms (Windows vs. macOS vs. web)
- UI complexity and steep learning curve for new users
.
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Purview Data Governance
August 2025

Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Purview Data Governance. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The tool is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The tool is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The support must be improved. Unfortunately, a lot of times, it's a hit or miss. With the breadth of their customer base, much of it must be diverted to third-party consultants. I almost dread it when I see an email from a third-party vendor. When you're an insider, you have much better access to resources than a consultant.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using Barracuda DLP for email filtering and file sharing. We switched to Microsoft Purview to bring it all under one umbrella.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
I have a few friends in the industry who've done this. We did a proof of concept, began small, looked at the pros and cons, and expanded it.
What was our ROI?
The product saves us time and effort. We can easily access Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft 365 and see the violations. It has easier and fewer workflows. Otherwise, we would have had to go into individual users' file systems and look for violations.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is extremely affordable for the K-12 space.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated solutions for individual silos, but we did not evaluate a cohesive unit like Microsoft Purview. Microsoft is extremely affordable for the K-12 space. It was a no-brainer to onboard Purview to peer across different workloads.
Barracuda Email Security was pretty good. The problem was that it was a single solution. It doesn't extend across our data estate. Purview has a vast and rich ecosystem.
What other advice do I have?
It is extremely important that Purview delivers data protection across multi-cloud environments. They currently do GCP and AWS, but not necessarily Google Workspace. I'm hoping that it'll be their next natural extension.
It is very important to us that Purview was built taking into account critical regulations from around the world. Since we work in the K-12 space, we deal with minors. It is important to protect their identity and privacy and have their well-being and the nationwide and statewide regulations at the forefront. It's very important for us to be compliant, not just from a compliance perspective, but also to protect the needs of children.
Insider risk is a big challenge. Many people want to share and communicate. There's a balance between communicating and oversharing confidential information. It's reasonable to expect a teacher to know all those nuances. A policy that can oversee and provide guardrails to users is very important. A feedback mechanism for the end user to act on would be very helpful.
We can see across different systems without too much effort. It is very important to us. Purview enables us to show our compliance in real-time. The security score helps me compare myself to other organizations. Being able to identify a gap and fill it is super helpful. As a small organization, our audits are more financial in nature.
More than time and money, the tool has increased accountability within the organization. We can have proactive conversations about data security. The product provides me with a 300% return on investment.
It is critical for us that Purview connects to iOS, Mac, and Android devices. Large organizations can have separate IT sections for different departments. As a smaller organization, our ability to support different needs across different SaaS applications and platforms through Purview is important.
The ability to peer more into heterogeneous environments is an area of growth for the solution. It is a must-have.
Overall, I rate the product a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Last updated: May 29, 2025
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IT security analyst at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Helps protect data across multi-platform environments, connects to a wide range of devices, and helps us stay compliant
Pros and Cons
- "The custom classifications are one of the most valuable features."
- "The custom data classification for the African region needs to be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We use Microsoft Purview for DLP capabilities and email encryption.
How has it helped my organization?
Ensuring data protection across multi-cloud and multi-platform environments through Purview is crucial for us. Currently operating on Azure and AWS, we plan to migrate a portion of our on-premises workloads to the cloud. To achieve this, we will leverage Purview for data loss prevention on our virtual machines and utilize Azure Arc for centralized management of all our platforms.
Purview's ability to connect to a wide range of devices, including iOS, Android, and others, enhances our visibility into BYOD devices deployed across our environments.
As a public organization, we are bound by policies and regulations. To ensure compliance across Azure Dynamics 365 and Office 365, both locally and internationally, we leverage the native compliance capabilities of Purview, which integrates seamlessly with both platforms.
The DLP for remediating policy violations works well. We can easily view the details and conduct investigations from a single dashboard.
We recently started using Purview for DLP on Mac OS devices.
Implementing Purview as our primary data loss prevention solution has yielded significant benefits. Our Microsoft E5 license provides enhanced protection across the organization, offering immense value through its comprehensive features. Consequently, we have been able to streamline our security posture by consolidating third-party solutions and focusing on Purview and other robust Microsoft applications.
Microsoft Purview has streamlined our workflow by consolidating diverse systems into a single, user-friendly dashboard. This one-stop shop simplifies access and management across our organization.
Microsoft Purview enables us to show our compliance in real-time. We are satisfied with the speed at which Purview provides alerts and details to us.
Microsoft Purview has significantly shortened the response time to insider threats by almost 70 percent. It can rapidly block unauthorized user access, leading to a reduction in required manpower.
Microsoft Purview has helped to save money by preventing the loss of data in our environment as well as around 60 percent of our admin user's time.
Purview helps us stay on top of compliance. We no longer have to review incidents manually, improving compliance by 80 percent.
What is most valuable?
The custom classifications are one of the most valuable features. For instance, if we want to block the transfer of card details, there are many pre-built samples for different countries that we can easily use in Purview, eliminating the need to create our classifications which makes the work easier.
What needs improvement?
Purview needs to improve its DLP capabilities for removable devices such as external drives and USB devices.
The custom data classification for the African region needs to be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Purview for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft Purview has been stable, with no incidents involving the Data Loss Prevention functionality. However, there have been a few instances where the admin portal has been unavailable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Microsoft Purview is extremely scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The support response time can be improved.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are currently using Forcepoint and Microsoft Purview, but with our E5 license, we're considering consolidating our security products under one umbrella and one dashboard, potentially phasing out Forcepoint.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment took a few hours. Five to six people were involved in the deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would rate the cost of Microsoft Purview a six out of ten with ten being the most expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Microsoft Purview an eight out of ten.
We have a complex group-wide tenant that requires us to have different administrative units for each country. We have around 50,000 users worldwide.
Purview does not require any maintenance beyond regular checks in the admin portal to ensure everything is functioning correctly.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Purview Data Governance
August 2025

Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Purview Data Governance. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Cybersecurity Consultant at Cyberiage
Safeguards sensitive and confidential data, but frequent updates can make navigating the UI unpredictable
Pros and Cons
- "Microsoft Purview's primary benefit lies in safeguarding sensitive and confidential data, thereby mitigating the risk of internal data exfiltration."
- "Frequent daily updates from Microsoft can cause interface elements like buttons to appear and disappear, making navigation unpredictable."
What is our primary use case?
We have implemented Microsoft Purview as a comprehensive DLP solution for our clients across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East to protect their data and help them classify, identify, and investigate who and how the data is being accessed.
How has it helped my organization?
Microsoft is aiming to build favorable relationships with other cloud solution providers. On our end, if we have both AWS solutions and Microsoft's cloud solution, implementing the Microsoft Purview dashboard can be a good way to collect and classify our data across both platforms. This could be a strong selling point for Microsoft to explore partnerships with AWS and other public cloud players, allowing them to combine and leverage their global development, sales, and services.
Implementing Purview's integrated compliance across Azure Dynamics 365 and Office 365 is relatively straightforward thanks to available connectors and Microsoft's improved user interface.
Microsoft Purview includes a compliance manager, which simplifies meeting various standards and regulations through integration with companies like ISO, ISCE, and other risk solutions. This feature is an add-on for E5 and E3 licenses. It allows us to create assessments that generate reports with specific recommendations for implementing and configuring ISO 27001 or other standards within our Microsoft 365 environment. This makes compliance significantly easier and, according to Microsoft, can reduce the cost of implementing such measures by approximately 40 percent compared to using other solutions for ISO compliance or other critical regulations.
Given my role as a cybersecurity consultant, I previously created a DLP policy based on the client's needs. Since then, I haven't had further contact with the client. However, I'm now working on a new project for them next year. This project involves developing and implementing a DLP solution with a focus on information protection. My responsibilities include monitoring all user activity and reporting on it in a few months. Based on my observations, there's a significant amount of activity requiring governance. This includes areas like DLP policy enforcement, USB blocking, printer control, copy prevention, file transfer via secure FTP, and external user access restrictions. Purview's data loss protection is helpful for remediating policy violations.
I'm developing a short training guide, about four pages or more, on enabling information protection labeling and related topics. Some clients have suggested automation, but I believe the best approach is to guide users through manual labeling. For instance, we could have a "Sensitive" label for data like personal information, ID numbers, passports, names, passwords, and so on. Information protection can be implemented either by defining detection rules beforehand or by using the system's automated detection capabilities. If sensitive information is detected, the system can then recommend applying the "Non-Confidential" label or whichever equivalent label we prefer.
Microsoft has developed and launched Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for Mac. This agent for macOS is the same agent used for data loss prevention in Endpoint. However, if we don't require DLP for Endpoint, we can simply synchronize our Macs with Microsoft Intune. Intune, a combination of Microsoft Entra ID and an MDM solution, is not just for mobile devices; it's a device management platform for all company devices, including PCs, Macs, mobile devices, and servers. It allows us to synchronize settings and policies across all our devices, manage software deployments, and utilize various other features. Therefore, we have two options: either synchronize our Macs with Intune or install the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint agent to implement DLP for Endpoint. DLP for Endpoint is mandatory if we need to detect and control USB devices, printers, and other data transfer peripherals.
Microsoft Purview's primary benefit lies in safeguarding sensitive and confidential data, thereby mitigating the risk of internal data exfiltration.
Purview does help our customers reduce the number of solutions they interact with. From a cybersecurity engineer and information security expert perspective, consolidating and streamlining technology can be beneficial for IT departments, especially before implementation. Currently, Security Service Edge emerges as a promising solution due to its integration with zero-trust principles and protocols. For example, instead of deploying multiple endpoint detection and response solutions, a single, antivirus-free EDR like CrowdStrike can suffice. Similarly, Microsoft's Defender for Cloud Apps, combined with XDR and other security features, offers a comprehensive solution for Security Operations Centers. My goal is to create a unified MDR solution for clients, allowing for centralized data collection and log analysis. This unified platform, ideally with one or two dashboards, would enable efficient investigation and response, minimizing investigation time and cost. Combining various tools into one interface eliminates the need to jump between dashboards, improving analyst efficiency. Why rely on multiple vendors like CrowdStrike, Proofpoint, Minetest, and MISSP when a single solution can offer comprehensive visibility and data security? Microsoft's Image Security 365, coupled with best practices and anti-phishing strategies, can significantly enhance security. Furthermore, I recommend implementing a DMZ with two firewalls, one internal and one external. This layered security approach, while requiring two vendors, provides redundancy and prevents attackers from exploiting a single firewall and gaining access to the network. However, it's important to remember that cybersecurity solutions are not one-size-fits-all. Each client and scenario requires tailored strategies based on their unique needs and context. Consistency across the industry is crucial, but it's important to acknowledge the lack of standardized approaches in the current landscape.
The Microsoft Purview dashboard is primarily a data security solution, allowing us to implement various layers to safeguard our information. While it can be used for some Endpoint Detection and Response functionalities, its full potential in this area might not be realized without proper configuration and understanding of the underlying processes.
While Purview offers real-time compliance monitoring, it's an add-on feature functioning as a compliance manager. However, due to a lack of clear communication, not all companies fully understand its capabilities. Additionally, it's important to note that while compliance and standards often relate heavily to financial and banking sectors, the scope of regulations has broadened significantly in recent years, extending beyond these specific industries.
Purview helps us stay on top of compliance because Microsoft has tried to build Purview based on the ISC framework.
What is most valuable?
No single feature stands out as the best because the most effective approach involves combining multiple features. For example, when using information protection, labeling, and classification, a multi-step process is necessary. First, we must classify our data, which requires a thorough understanding of our environment and the nature of the data itself. Once classified, we can apply labels and establish rules governing data sharing through information protection measures. The final step involves implementing and configuring a Data Loss Prevention solution. It's crucial to remember that the goal isn't to find ideal individual features; rather, it's to leverage the synergy of multiple technologies to create a comprehensive and powerful data protection strategy.
What needs improvement?
I've been working closely with Microsoft support on issues with the Microsoft Purview Information Protection scanner's on-premises services. While it's a solid tool, there's still room for improvement in my opinion. I've submitted numerous recommendations, from solutions to address specific problems to the implementation of new features like bulk scanning across multiple servers, not just individual paths. I've also encountered a high number of false positives in the classifier and made suggestions for resolving them. Microsoft support is currently reviewing my input, and we're collaborating to refine the scanner and minimize false positives. It's important to remember that this is a new technology, and like any newborn business venture, it's prone to growing pains. Errors and mistakes are inevitable along the way, but they're also valuable learning opportunities.
Frequent daily updates from Microsoft can cause interface elements like buttons to appear and disappear, making navigation unpredictable. Additionally, Microsoft also generates new licenses that require investigation to identify each new license.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Purview for one and a half years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Microsoft Purview is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Sometimes we have a communication gap or delay but most of the time the technical support is good.
How was the initial setup?
One person can deploy Microsoft Purview.
What about the implementation team?
We implement Purview for our clients.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are a Microsoft Gold Partner and are currently satisfied with our existing solutions. Therefore, we do not prioritize evaluating other vendors at this time.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Microsoft Purview a seven out of ten. Purview is a good solution but it takes time to master.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Helps us save time and meet compliance, but the reporting needs improvement
Pros and Cons
- "Data authentication enables us to classify documents based on whether they should be restricted for internal consumption or permitted for external sharing."
- "Privacy features should be integrated into the core product rather than offered as optional add-ons, as privacy is not a luxury but a fundamental requirement."
What is our primary use case?
We utilize Microsoft Purview to manage our data classifications, identify sensitive information in our documents for certification protection and data loss prevention, and we anticipate employing insider risk management. While we haven't yet implemented insider risk management, it is part of our strategic plan and compliance assessment.
How has it helped my organization?
From an access management standpoint, we have users accessing our data from various mobile devices, including Android, iOS, and iPad, as well as Windows and MacBook computers. Therefore, it is crucial to implement consistent policies and safeguards across all platforms, regardless of the operating system or device type.
We are a heavily Microsoft shop so all Microsoft platforms are important to us and Purview's natively integrated compliance is great.
It is important and useful for us that Purview was built taking into account critical regulations from around the world.
We report on all of our DLP policy violations. We have alerts set up to notify our security team to take action when violations occur.
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention is an effective tool for educating users on how to best handle sensitive data. It can detect and identify various types of sensitive data, although we have observed that not all of the built-in detection mechanisms function flawlessly. Consequently, we have had to modify some of the detection modules. Additionally, certain detection rules specific to New Zealand have not performed as expected. Despite these limitations, the ability to detect sensitive data and utilize prompts to guide users in correctly classifying documents is quite valuable. We intend to expand our use of these features as we progressively deploy Purview across our organization.
We have several Mac OS users in our business, so it is important that Purview can and does extend policies regardless of the platform being used.
Since implementing Purview, the compliance assessment process has been effective. The expansion of country-specific regulations has been a crucial development. In New Zealand, we've utilized built-in privacy act laws and regulations, which have been beneficial. However, I believe the integration of the Copilot tool and advancements in AI will likely bring about continuous changes to the compliance landscape.
With Purview, we can continue using native Microsoft products for scalability, eliminating the need to rely on external vendors. This approach reduces the number of vendors in our environment.
The visibility Purview provides into our estate is useful. We have had a privacy campaign running for the last year and using Purview to essentially see where our data and sensor data are.
Purview enables us to show our compliance in real-time. We would use it to help demonstrate our compliance to regulators.
Purview enables us to save approximately 30 percent of our security team's time by providing visibility into previously obscured areas of our environment. Moreover, Purview is seamlessly integrated into our existing Microsoft licenses, eliminating any additional costs.
Purview helps us stay on top of compliance.
What is most valuable?
Data authentication enables us to classify documents based on whether they should be restricted for internal consumption or permitted for external sharing. This classification allows us to apply appropriate policies to each document type.
The DLP is also a valuable feature that we use.
What needs improvement?
The reporting is limited and has room for improvement.
Privacy features should be integrated into the core product rather than offered as optional add-ons, as privacy is not a luxury but a fundamental requirement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Purview for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of Purview a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Purview can meet our scalability needs.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support used to be more reliable and consistently good. Now, while it's still possible to get assistance from a knowledgeable representative, the overall quality of support has declined.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used Azure Information Protection and Symantec DLP. We switched to Microsoft Purview because of the cost savings.
How was the initial setup?
Initial deployment is straightforward as we are a Microsoft shop, facilitating seamless integration with the native platform.
The deployment of Purview involved three individuals: one primary engineer and one architect. The initial deployment phase spanned six weeks, followed by an ongoing tuning process to maintain Purview's up-to-date status.
What was our ROI?
We have seen a return on investment, but it is too early to quantify the exact savings.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Purview is included in our Microsoft E5 licensing. There is no additional cost, but it does require us to maintain an E5 license to continue using Purview.
To fully justify the cost of Purview, it is important to leverage all of its capabilities.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Microsoft Purview a seven out of ten. While Purview is gradually improving, its reporting capabilities remain subpar. As we introduce additional products like Copilot and others, there will likely be a need for more robust integration plans that outline how these products will interact and the benefits they will provide.
We only use Microsoft Purview in our Microsoft 365 workload environment.
We are currently evaluating AI products like Copilot and several chatGPT-style tools for potential implementation within our organization. However, we are proceeding cautiously until we have fully implemented Purview to address our concerns regarding potential data loss associated with AI product usage. Once we are satisfied with Purview's effectiveness in mitigating these risks, we will accelerate our evaluation and adoption of AI products.
We have 5,000 users who were using Purview for the software, and we have a two-person support team. Every corporate user in our organization has a license to use the solution.
Purview requires regular maintenance because there is an ongoing need to review components like DLP rules and data classification. This ongoing maintenance ensures that the system continues to function effectively and accurately. Additionally, ongoing tuning helps to minimize false positives and false negatives, ensuring that the system accurately detects potential issues.
Ensure clear communication regarding the desired grouping of data classifications and the functioning of the data loss prevention policy. Understanding these aspects is crucial for effective product utilization. User training and communication are essential around the implementation of the data loss prevention policy as it impacts user behavior. Senior leadership should take the lead in championing this initiative, possibly as part of a broader privacy or border protection campaign. Our involvement in this process can be minimal.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
DB Architect at a retailer with 5,001-10,000 employees
Simplifies the audit process, offering a single scan of data sets and providing insights for better data governance but lack of mature disaster recovery features
What is our primary use case?
We use Purview for data cataloging and to build the DME (Data Management Environment) for enterprise data. We also use it to understand the insights of how data is flowing across systems, from ERP systems to our data warehouse and the installation layer. This helps us to look at data classifications and where exactly sensor data is being used. It gives us a bird-eye view.
There are two primary use cases. One is to build the data catalog for our enterprise data, and the other one is to build the lineage. These serve to provide a clearer understanding of the data aspect.
There are two things: I'm more specific about data for Purview. There are two types of tools in Purview, but I have exclusively used data Purview. Purview is basically the one for data governance, and there is for enterprise-level security. I am more involved in the data governance aspect.
How has it helped my organization?
Purview has helped to reduce the number of solutions we need to interact with each other. That's the best thing with Purview: we can have a lot of options to get a view to identifying data that not only helps directly have access, but we can still have access to the data catalog and have a view of all the data access across the system.
We can also look at certified assets. I'll also look at ratings and tags so that we can find the right valuable data or trusted data that we can go for without anyone's help here. Based on the feedback, even from a few of the data supports or the experts, that would definitely help because it stops building the dependency with a specific person, and we can contribute once in the data catalog, and we could use those extensively across the org.
There are multiple aspects that it helps. It's not specific to security, it's not specific to what we call data classification. Another thing is we can have visibility across not specific to one area. We can explore all on-prem systems, cloud, multi-cloud platforms, and data in our data lake, SQL database, and Power BI. We have visibility of everything. We don't need access to the actual sources, but we can have just a view of our enterprise data, which is definitely the best thing I can say in terms of visibility. For example, if any chief data officers want to look at the enterprise data or the data estate completely, it would definitely help a lot in looking at what data is in-house and sensitivity where exactly the sensitivity data is being placed. That's the best thing I can say in terms of giving visibility to data officers and data storage.
There are a few audits we had. We used to track all the sensitive information, and in most cases, I can select Excel or any spreadsheets we have. Purview would help us with a single scan of our data sets, giving me the availability of where exactly the sensitive information is by just adding data classifications at one time.
Purview has defaulted a lot of our classes already enrolled, but on top of it, we can tweak it based on our custom needs. Then, scan data and get insights, which will definitely be a better way of doing data governance because if we want to perform any audit, it takes a lot of time. But with Purview, once we define our requirement and then scan it, we'll have the data before any audits that we want to perform. It's definitely helpful, especially in terms of data audits.
Purview will give us the classification of where data sits and then show us how it is being curated, how it is being stored across systems, who the end users are, and how it is being used. It definitely helps a lot in terms of complaints and staying on top of compliance. The important thing to say is that we can predefine and use it and have it ready to use. That's important. It scans the data frequently, so we get the insights updated frequently.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are lineage, data cataloging, glossaries, and the new access delegation feature. This feature will make it quicker to delegate access to all the data with a single request button.
On Azure, it's definitely important that Purview delivers data protection across multi-platform environments. It gives us complete visibility of where our security data resides and what types of data we have.
This is useful because we store data across multiple platforms, including databases, storage, spreadsheets, Excel, CSS, and caching. Purview helps us to see where exactly our data is stored across the system, especially in Azure. This is a great advantage because it helps us to feel more secure when moving our data to the cloud.
Moreover, Purview's data connector platform is getting valid day-to-day. It has connectivity to major cloud platforms, like GCP and AWS, and also it has a couple of areas. So it supports multi-platform and a couple of on-premise systems. It also connects a few of the heterogeneous databases.
It gives us insights. There are two aspects of it—one is about data governance and one is about security. Since I'm part of data governance, it does not deal much with threats because that's a different tool that will give us more insights about the threats. But in terms of data threats, I'll have visibility on who and how to stop it.
What needs improvement?
As we are looking at Purview as an enterprise-level tool, there are two areas where I still see that there is something that can be improved.
One is about disaster recovery. Purview has not matured in the way of building the tool without having disaster recovery. We don't have disaster recovery or high availability. If anything goes wrong, like, there are any changes happening, and I want to roll back, there is no way that I can roll back in the existing system.
For example, I have a data source in which one of the users has dropped or deleted the data unknowingly or accidentally. In that case, there is no way to roll back those changes. That's one place where Purview can improve it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have never experienced a crashing issue so far but lagging happens. It depends on our network traffic from where we are using it.
Our overall experience is good. I have never seen any issues with Purview.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
As it's consumption-based, it's easily scalable because Microsoft takes care of it, and I don't need to look at any hyperscaler for this.
We are good with the scalability but, the cost factor is involved here. Once you scale up, the cost is higher, so we have to be more cautious about it.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service and support are good. The support team was quite helpful in many of cases. For example, when I want to contact any person, like a Microsoft client partner, they help me with one of the requirements, and we had some workshops and a few guidelines given to us. That was very helpful for us.
Since Purview is a new product, it has multiple features being adopted.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
It was more of manual work that we used to do, like doing the audit and building the data catalogs.
Since we are a Microsoft shop, that's one reason why we are going with Purview. We have other tools like Collibra, but that will be costly and may not. It requires a lot of effort compared to Purview to implement. That's the reason we chose Purview.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward, with minimal dependency on the administrators.
What about the implementation team?
We didn't get help from the integrator, reseller, or consultant.
What was our ROI?
Purview helped to save time and money. If we are looking for an enterprise-level solution, Purview would be the best tool.
We have invested around $22k per month. But we have to work more on showing a return on investment because I see only a few users using this because data lineage is one area we are focusing more on, but still, there are a lot of issues in getting it. Down the line, I can say this is going to give us a return on investment but we are not there. Right now, we are trusting that we will get that soon.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Since it's more consumption-based, the pricing looks good, but we should have a few options to limit Purview.
In terms of usage or size and limit the price. Right now, we don't have control over it because it depends on the volume of data IT stores and the number of users being used concurrently. So those are a few areas we don't have control over because it's completely on the consumption base now.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Manager Enterprise Data and Analytics at a construction company with 501-1,000 employees
Helps classify data quickly and effortlessly, saves us time, and improves visibility
Pros and Cons
- "The ability to classify data quickly and effortlessly is arguably Microsoft Purview's most valuable feature."
- "Reflecting organizational changes within Purview is impractical."
What is our primary use case?
To ensure compliance with numerous regulations for our data governance initiative, we employ Microsoft Purview for data classification.
How has it helped my organization?
In our specific case, we only have on-premises servers and the same Microsoft cloud platform, Azure. I have not used Microsoft Purview with any other cloud providers like AWS or anything like that. However, it appears that Purview can be used to protect data across multiple clouds and platforms.
In the future, it could be important for us that Purview can connect to iOS, Mac, and Android devices. We will be onboarding data that requires updating some of the tables, descriptions, and other aspects. In that case, it would be beneficial for users to be able to access it from different devices. However, in my case and for the people in IT, we will always be using computers.
Microsoft Purview's native integration with Azure Dynamics and Office compliance is good. We have utilized it with Synapse Analytics and Data Factory, both Microsoft products. The integration is seamless and efficient. However, in the context of Synapse Analytics, its value proposition is less evident. While it is a nice feature, I cannot fully grasp its significance.
It is crucial that Purview was built with consideration for critical regulations from around the world. This is an integral part of the classification rules and it simplifies our work. However, I haven't seen specific references to regulations such as GDPR or PII. There are numerous laws in different states, as well as preferences here in Canada, but I haven't come across specific examples. Nevertheless, the classifications encompass a wide range of government information, sensitive data like financial information, and personal information based on various formats that we can even adjust or create our own. So, it's a positive aspect.
Purview has assisted us in creating an updated catalog that is more realistic. It has also enabled us to quickly classify our data. Additionally, we aim to enrich the data catalog with more metadata, both now and in the future. While this process is primarily manual, we are exploring ways to involve business users to streamline it.
It has improved the visibility into our estate.
Purview allows us to demonstrate our compliance on a near real-time basis. While executing a single scan will provide updated information, it doesn't provide true real-time visibility. To achieve the closest to real-time compliance monitoring, we can execute data extraction processes every four hours.
We have saved around 40 hours per month on some of our projects, which also leads to cost savings.
What is most valuable?
The ability to classify data quickly and effortlessly is arguably Microsoft Purview's most valuable feature. It can scan all tables and columns, identifying those that contain personal names, date builds, or other sensitive information.
What needs improvement?
I am interested in exploring the process of data scanning to identify data lines that do not contain stored procedures. This would allow us to detect potential black boxes within our data, where we are unable to trace the flow of information and identify all instances of stored procedures. Additionally, we would like to expand the reporting capabilities beyond Power BI to encompass other visualization tools such as Tableau, Looker, and others.
Reflecting organizational changes within Purview is impractical. Any such changes necessitate discarding existing data and starting anew, which increases both the cost and time required for maintenance. Therefore, I believe that enhancing Purview's maintainability is crucial.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Purview for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of Purview a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Purview is easily scalable in the cloud.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support team was readily available for a Zoom call and was able to view my screen and provide assistance. The only downside was that I ultimately resolved the issue myself, which suggests that the local Microsoft support may not be as knowledgeable.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used other solutions other than Purview but it doesn't encompass the entire data management lifecycle. For example, Tableau has a data management suite, but it's primarily focused on analyzing reports, enforcing visualization governance, and managing data within Tableau itself. It doesn't extend to data sources or beyond that. Other data management tools in development offer similar functionality, but they may not have specific classifications for personal information.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment was straightforward. The cloud administrator handled the subscription and all the necessary paperwork, while I proceeded with the setup.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is reasonable considering its value.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Microsoft Purview nine out of ten. Purview is a good product but still has some areas to improve.
Thus far, we haven't had any comprehensive maintenance for Purview. While there is maintenance required for scanning new servers, that's essentially the extent of our maintenance efforts. We may need to make significant changes to Purview's structure to enhance its usability. Purview's current structure resembles that of an organizational department. For instance, if a marketing application is mistakenly scanned under HR, I cannot simply move it to the correct location. Instead, I must discard all existing data and start from scratch.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Offers cross-platform capabilities, centralized data management, and a variety of features that enable compliance
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable aspect of Purview is its PowerShell connectivity, enabling automation."
- "Setting up Purview in a production tenant proved challenging due to a lack of clear documentation on permission requirements."
What is our primary use case?
Microsoft Purview helps our business identify valuable information across various data types by using machine learning and customizable tags. It then allows users to export this data with PowerShell and combine it with metadata from other Microsoft products, facilitating both data analysis and migration processes.
How has it helped my organization?
While I haven't used Purview's cross-platform capabilities, I'm impressed by Microsoft's integration of its various solutions, including ComplianceOne and SharePoint, which cater to large enterprises. A deep dive into the functionality confirmed this positive impression.
The ability of Microsoft Purview to connect across devices, including Macs like mine, is a major benefit. While I was surprised to find PowerShell running smoothly on Mac, Purview itself has been user-friendly and avoided the issues I've read about online. This ease of use is crucial for me.
My previous projects focused on M365, but the next step is integrating Azure Virtual Machines into our solutions. In this context, Purview's ability to natively integrate compliance across both Azure Dynamics and Office 365 is crucial for ensuring our work scales effectively.
The biggest advantage of Purview is its ability to centralize data management. This multi-platform tool integrates data assets from across the company, providing a reliable and unified way to handle data procedures. This consistency, a hallmark of Microsoft products, is valuable for many users.
Designed for our regulated environment, Purview offers a variety of features that enable us to develop compliant solutions even when limitations seem to restrict what's achievable.
Purview has helped save us time through automation.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable aspect of Purview is its PowerShell connectivity, enabling automation. The content explorer helps visualize how classifiers, including custom-sensitive information types, identify content. Purview even allows testing these custom types with a dedicated button. Overall, PowerShell governance and export capabilities significantly improve our workflow by automating tasks and simplifying data extraction.
What needs improvement?
While Microsoft Purview addresses global regulations, it lacks out-of-the-box functionality. Extensive development is needed to define sensitive information types and train rectifiers for each customer. Most importantly, Purview currently lacks multi-language support, hindering its use in multilingual environments. Since communication compliance is the only exception, future updates should include sensitive information types and keywords in major languages, especially those relevant to the European Union. This would require customization efforts to create equivalents for these information types and keywords in other languages.
The rapid pace of feature changes in Purview, including marketing shifts, retirements, merges, and splits, creates challenges. Documentation struggles to keep up, leaving users behind. Further compounding this issue is the inconsistency of PowerShell modules. While some, like the SAP exporter, function well, others, like the trainable classifier's missing fetch module, significantly limit the usability of a potentially valuable feature. This lack of polish hinders automation efforts and makes data governance assessments more difficult.
Setting up Purview in a production tenant proved challenging due to a lack of clear documentation on permission requirements. While Purview offers role-based access with custom role creation, there's no built-in explanation of each role's function and associated permissions. Microsoft Learn documentation wasn't helpful either. Ideally, Purview should provide in-context information about each role within the portal, eliminating the need for cryptic names and extensive external research.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Purview for under one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft Purview seems to be functioning, but there's a lack of clarity on how it analyzes data. The content explorer shows inconsistencies, with Microsoft acknowledging that the actual document count might differ from what's displayed. This suggests limitations in the current setup. While improvement is desirable, it's still a usable tool.
How are customer service and support?
I submitted a support request in the test tenant, possibly specific to that environment. However, the Purview quality was lacking. Automatic replies didn't address my question, which seemed misplaced within the chosen topic. It felt like I contacted the wrong department. Instead of offering real support, they suggested I write a public blog post seeking help online. This was essentially non-existent support, potentially due to limited resources for test tenant users. It's unclear if this reflects the quality of support for the expensive enterprise licenses.
How was the initial setup?
While deploying Purview itself was easy for me after I had spent significant time getting a Microsoft certification, onboarding junior colleagues who haven't had that preparation is proving more challenging. Despite their initial confusion, the overall structure and features of Purview seem well-organized and at least decent.
While a single person could deploy Purview in this instance because it's a test tenant, it's important to clarify that this ease of deployment applies only to the test environment and wouldn't be representative of the process for a production tenant.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation was completed in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Microsoft Purview is a subscription-based service, so we need either an E3 or E5 license to use it. The specific features we have access to within Purview depend on which of these licenses we have.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Microsoft Purview eight out of ten.
To choose the best Purview subscription for your needs, I recommend using a test tenant to explore Purview's features and value proposition. This will help you identify the most critical functionalities and choose the subscription that best aligns with your business requirements.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Enterprise data architect at a non-profit with 1,001-5,000 employees
Works seamlessly with Microsoft products but not with third-party products
Pros and Cons
- "Their data labeling or data classification is particularly valuable because we want to categorize all of our data into confidential, public, or internal."
- "It supports only a limited number of tools and technologies that pertain to Microsoft products. If you want to leverage other solutions such as Workday or Oracle Fusion, features will be coming up, but as of now, it is for the Microsoft suite."
What is our primary use case?
We migrated everything to the Azure cloud. Microsoft Purview was coming up at the time, and we also started looking into their other products such as Microsoft Power Platform, particularly Power BI. We wanted to see how these particular tools can go head to head and how they would be useful. This is when we started with Microsoft Purview. The POC itself took more than a year because it was not easy. The tool was growing. It took a long time to get their product support help to fix some of the issues and features.
In the last year, we started using it for a few things. One is mainly data protection. We mainly targeted the scenarios where when someone is sending a document in an email or labeling a document as confidential, what the person receiving the document can do.
We are trying to cover Microsoft 365-related products. We are trying to use it for the data discovery process. That is the end goal. Across the organization, we want people to be able to find the data easily. There is a kind of data marketplace, and we started to use it for data discovery.
How has it helped my organization?
Data discovery is one of the beautiful things of Microsoft Purview. We mostly have Microsoft products, so it has been helpful, but we are continuously growing. We are still in the learning stage with this product. We are trying to onboard only a small amount of data, and then we will see how we can curate the data so that it is meaningful. Slowly, and probably after a year, we will come to know how efficiently we are using Microsoft Purview as a part of the data discovery phase.
Microsoft Purview is a cloud-native app. So far, we have only used it with Windows with Chrome or Edge browser, and it works seamlessly. It is not a problem. We have not used it with other OSs, but it should work with them.
Microsoft Purview was built taking into account critical regulations from around the world. Data classification is one of the beautiful features. It works seamlessly.
Microsoft Purview's natively integrated compliance across Azure, Dynamics 365, and Office 365 is perfect.
Microsoft Purview enables you to show your compliance in real time. There is the Insights dashboard, which is particularly for security officers. They can always go and have a look. If there are any compliance issues with the portal, they can always go and check anytime.
Microsoft Purview has helped to reduce the time to action on insider threats, but I do not have the metrics. We are in the discovery phase. After a year, we should be able to provide exact metrics. As of now, we just look into the issue and take action. It is helping to reduce the errors. In terms of percentage, there are about 20% savings.
Microsoft Purview will save us time and overall product delivery costs. Product data discovery should be easy, which will reduce the overall product delivery time. This is something that we are working on. There should be at least 10% savings on the project delivery time.
What is most valuable?
There are several features. Their data labeling or data classification is particularly valuable because we want to categorize all of our data into confidential, public, or internal. Microsoft Purview works seamlessly with the Microsoft product suite, including Office 365, to schematize the data assets, so data labeling and classification have been helpful.
Microsoft Purview can connect with all of our security-related things across Office 365. It easily connects with Microsoft Defender. The integration with Microsoft Defender is good.
It works well for schematized data assets for lineage tracking. Overall, it works well if someone is using mostly Microsoft products.
What needs improvement?
It is still growing. It does not meet all the requirements from the security point of view. It supports only a limited number of tools and technologies that pertain to Microsoft products. If you want to leverage other solutions such as Workday or Oracle Fusion, features will be coming up, but as of now, it is for the Microsoft suite.
It is still growing as a data connector platform for supporting ingestion from non-Microsoft data sources, so not all the products are supported as of now.
As a data catalog tool, it needs to have a connection with all the sources. This improvement is definitely needed because they are supporting only Microsoft-related products but not third-party products.
For how long have I used the solution?
We started to explore Microsoft Purview when they launched it. It was the end of 2021.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable product, and continuous improvements are always coming in. After a year, it probably will be a complete tool for all sorts of uses. I would rate it an eight out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is unlimited. I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of scalability.
We currently have 10 to 20 people using the tool. It is deployed as part of information technology from the IT management, and we try to circulate it by onboarding various sets of users from various departments.
How are customer service and support?
Last week, I raised an issue with technical support. It issue was a priority for us. Within a couple of hours, they got back. They were efficient with this particular product. I would rate them a nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used some of the manual processes. We built a data catalog using Vast data services.
How was the initial setup?
It is deployed on the cloud. The deployment time is much less, but because it is a data cataloging tool, curating the data takes time. Spinning of the environment and starting it can be done in a couple of hours.
It definitely requires maintenance from the data security and data scanning point of view.
What about the implementation team?
We have a data governance team.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is cheap. It is based on consumption. If somebody wants to start using it, the price is definitely cheaper than a tool like Collibra.
What other advice do I have?
I would definitely recommend Microsoft Purview. However, it is not good for data quality. If you are not looking for data quality and you only want a complete security and data cataloging tool, it is perfect.
It is still maturing. At this time, I would rate Microsoft Purview a six out of ten.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.

Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Purview Data Governance Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
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Updated: August 2025
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft Purview Data Governance Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
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