Microsoft Purview Data Governance Reviews

I am a system integrator for Microsoft Purview. I have assessed some customers who already have Microsoft Purview because of their E5 license. However, they are not aware of Purview's capabilities. Purview is a relatively new product that provides an end-to-end data security lifecycle solution. It allows us to review our data with a data governance solution, classify it, protect it, and prevent data breaches. I have worked on almost all aspects of Purview.

We have assessed some customers and provided them with use cases such as using Purview to protect confidential data recovery. This allows them to manage their own workflow for vendors on a contractual basis. We have multiple use cases for Purview.

Purview's natively integrated compliance across Azure Dynamics and Office 365 is important. Microsoft has the advantage of being able to connect other solutions in its suite more easily, and this makes Purview a very good choice. With the exception of OCR in Teams, Purview works very smoothly. If we want to protect something in an email, Purview will prompt us immediately if we have configured it to do so. This is very convenient, and Purview does not use more system resources than expected. Another advantage of using Purview is that it is Microsoft's own product, so Microsoft can customize it to its own needs and ensure that it does not impact system performance.

It is important that Purview was built taking into account critical regulations from around the world. Purview is important because businesses are increasingly operating globally, and data is moving between different regions and countries. Purview is up to date with respect to different regional, national, and state privacy laws. I have found Purview to be a great solution, but it is not yet operating as well as it could. Microsoft is working hard to address this issue, and they are publishing new privacy acts to Purview on a regular basis.

How we use Purview data loss protection to educate users on how to handle sensitive data is we deploy Purview in the organization, categorize the data by region or department, perform data flow analysis to understand how the data is used and shared, classify the data as low, medium, or high risk based on the daily digital annual loss, We protect the data using Microsoft DLP, We publish videos on SharePoint to educate users about data classification and labeling, and we enable users to self-educate by providing them with access to documentation and training resources.

Purview is valuable because it is the only end-to-end data lifecycle management solution that provides data governance, classification, and protection.

Purview helps to reduce the number of solutions we need to interact with.

The reduction of the number of solutions we now need to interact with has simplified our data governance. 

I am satisfied with the visibility that Purview provides. Even without configuring anything, we can see many insights, but we do not get the exact details unless we configure Purview accordingly.

It provides a real-time compliance score for all our devices connected with Identity Access Management and Defender.

Purview helps us save time by publishing the policies quickly and collecting information in real time.

Purview helps us stay compliant. I have not encountered another solution that provides end-to-end licensing.

One of the valuable features of Microsoft Purview Information Protection, formerly known as Azure Information Protection or Microsoft Information Protection is data classification and data governance. MIP provides a unified labeling client that allows users to apply sensitivity labels to documents and emails in Microsoft Office files without the need for extra plugins or agents. MIP also provides strong information rights management settings, such as the ability to specify who has access to content and at what time.

Microsoft Purview's ability to deliver data protection across multi-cloud and multi-platform environments is important, but there are some limitations. For example, if we have our own cloud solution, Purview cannot currently protect it. However, we can integrate Purview with other OEMs, such as Forcepoint, McAfee, or Symantec, to provide DLP functionality for our CASB. Additionally, Purview cannot protect cloud platforms that are part of a shared domain, such as our own website, unless they are part of the public domain. Purview needs to add DLP support.

One of the things I would like to recommend is that Purview doesn't have the option to push policies or updates in real-time. Instead, it is based on the last five-bit communication. We cannot make any changes to this. It is based on the device when it is communicating with the server. If I want to do this forcefully from the server, if I want to send a wake-up call to all or selected agents throughout the organization, Purview does not have this capability in the GUI.

The reporting functionality needs to be improved. I have found that the solution is not satisfactory for reporting. We have to use Power BI to generate the overall profit, but this requires a lot of configuration. In another solution, we can easily achieve the same reporting functionality.

Purview does not have OCR functionality or network web. Therefore, OCR functionality is not included. OCR is available for Teams, but it does not work as expected. For example, it does not work well for systems that deliver to the recipient database, which could cause problems if it does not match our rules.

Purview has limitations connecting to Android devices and SaaS devices.

While Purview's data connector platform can ingest information from non-Microsoft data sources, it is slow to do so and the information may become outdated.

I would rate Purview's data loss prevention for remediating violations a six out of ten. The reason is that Purview does not have an option for endpoint discarding. In contrast, Forcepoint and Trellix are more mature DLP solutions that offer endpoint discarding. This allows us to scan endpoints for sensitive data, take a replica of that data, and store it in a safe location. We can also encrypt the data on the endpoint. Microsoft Purview DLP does not offer this functionality. It is only available for Teams and email.

I have been using Microsoft Purview for one and a half years.

Some features of Purview are stable, while others are not. MIP is very stable. DLP is constantly being updated, so some of its options may be unstable. The only stable portion of DLP is the database checking management.

Purview is in the cloud, so it is scalable. However, Microsoft sometimes makes it confusing by adding add-on features that we are forced to add and which will cost us to move. For example, there are options for endpoints four and six, but to use these, we have to add block storage, which will cost more. We should only have the option to configure everything in one console. This is because humans sometimes need to go to the Azure team and ask for access if they do not have Azure. Alternatively, the Azure admin team has to do this on their behalf. This is something that Microsoft can think about.

The customer support is the worst. When we were raising the case, the support was literally asking us how to resolve the issue. So I was really confused about what kind of support this was. We were seeking support, and apparently so were they. One of the customer support people had just provided us with dates but was not working on resolving the issue. I don't know why.

Negative

I have also used McAfee, Symantec, and Forcepoint for our data security. These solutions all offer endpoint discarding, which Purview does not. This gives us the option to replicate and save a copy in another place. Endpoint discarding is granular, and we can save reports in real time and connect to endpoints in real-time. We can also bypass the endpoint, which we cannot do with Purview. McAfee does not have to be built in, while Symantec does. 

The pros of Purview are utilization and performance. It is a lightweight solution that does not impact system utilization. This is important. Microsoft is a one-stop shop for data classification and DLP, so we may not need to worry about integrating with different vendors. We have MIP, and then DLP if we have exposure from DLP. Of course, it is possible to integrate with the help of APIs, but there is a risk that Microsoft may decide not to integrate with Forcepoint or Symantec in the future. This is something customers should think about. In that case, for customers with an E5 license, Purview would be the best choice because they can utilize all the Microsoft products and save costs. This strategy will also improve their security posture.

The initial setup is straightforward. Just plug in our internet credentials. That's it! No need to worry about the server, its utilization, configuration, or architecture. It's very easy to use, and we don't have to worry about disaster recovery or data centers. In a way, it's really helpful and cost-effective. Microsoft is taking care of everything on a pay-as-you-go basis.

The number of people required for deployment depends on the number of end users and departments. For example, an organization with 15,000 end users, 40 departments, and some generic requirements can deploy the solution using one L3, one L2, and two L1 people.

The fact that our organization continues to use Purview indicates that it provides some sort of return on investment.

We pay $15,000 per end user for the E5 license.

I would rate Microsoft Purview seven out of ten.

According to Gartner, Microsoft DLP is one of the top ten DLP solutions, but the top three are Trellix, Symantec, and Forcepoint. I prefer Forcepoint.

The maintenance is easy to complete.

I highly recommend that an organization use an E5 license if they are going with Microsoft because this will give them everything they need, including technical management, governance, and data management.

We use the solution to defend endpoint workloads and prevent data loss. We also use it for governance.

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.

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

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

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I have been using the solution for five years.

The tool is stable.

The tool is scalable.

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.

Positive

We were using Barracuda DLP for email filtering and file sharing. We switched to Microsoft Purview to bring it all under one umbrella.

The initial setup was straightforward.

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.

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.

The solution is extremely affordable for the K-12 space.

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.

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.

We use Microsoft Purview for DLP capabilities and email encryption.

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.

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.

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.

I have been using Microsoft Purview for five years.

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.

Microsoft Purview is extremely scalable.

The support response time can be improved.

Positive

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.

The initial deployment took a few hours. Five to six people were involved in the deployment.

I would rate the cost of Microsoft Purview a six out of ten with ten being the most expensive.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I have been using Microsoft Purview for one and a half years.

Microsoft Purview is scalable.

Sometimes we have a communication gap or delay but most of the time the technical support is good.

One person can deploy Microsoft Purview.

We implement Purview for our clients.

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.

I would rate Microsoft Purview a seven out of ten. Purview is a good solution but it takes time to master.

We use Microsoft Purview to protect and govern our information.

It is important for Microsoft Purview to provide data protection across multi-cloud and multi-platform environments, including AWS and GCP. I have been a consultant for a year and a half, advising mostly European enterprise customers. All customers, from mid-sized to larger, have diverse storage solutions. Therefore, it is important for Microsoft Purview to be flexible enough to be applied to various environments, such as multi-cloud. Although the product is not yet there, it is important to many business customers.

The enterprise IT landscape is diverse, with various devices, SaaS applications, and multi-cloud solutions. Protecting and governing information is a need that spans all of these touchpoints and Microsoft Purview helps us do that.

Purview's native integration with Azure Dynamics 365 and Office 365 is essential because many organizations use these Microsoft products. This native integration is unmatched by other solutions.

Purview DataOps Protection does a great job of remediating policy violations. It has a comprehensive reporting and fine-tuning integration that allows us to track policy violations effectively. Overall, I think it does a great job of protecting data.

Purview recently improved in the area of DLP. These tips are now available across different platforms, such as Office and Outlook, and they are getting better. This is helpful in educating users about policies. 

Microsoft Purview helped us control the growth of data, reduce dark data, and better protect against the filtration of data.

Purview increased our visibility into our other Microsoft solutions.

We use AI and automation sparingly. This is not part of Purview directly, but an AI tool that helps us determine if data is redundant or has business value before we move it to Azure or Microsoft 365. We use the AI tool in a very limited way, such as trainable classifiers. We also have the option to use another product called Syntex in collaboration with Purview, but this has not been explored much.

Technically Purview can enable us to show our compliance in real-time.

Purview reduced the time it takes us to act on insider threats by almost 90 percent. Previously, many violations were not reported or took months to be reported. Now, we can act on violations almost instantly, or within days.

Microsoft Purview partially helps organizations stay on top of compliance. The platform provides a number of technical features that can be used to manage compliance, but it is up to organizations to implement these features and take the necessary steps to ensure compliance.

Microsoft Information Protection uses sensitivity labels to classify and protect sensitive information. MIP works together with Data Loss Prevention to prevent sensitive information from being leaked outside of the organization. MIP also helps to mitigate insider risk by preventing unauthorized users from accessing sensitive information.

Purview's data connectivity platform has a good set of connectors for ingesting data from non-Microsoft data sources. However, it still falls short in terms of coverage of other systems. It is mostly integrated with the Microsoft stack, but there are connectors to other systems and sources of information. Overall, Purview is not a one-stop shop for protecting company information.

I am not sure that Purview was built with compliance guidelines in mind. It does have a component called Compliance Manager, which allows us to track our adherence to different standards, such as security and privacy standards around the globe. However, this is more of an add-on. I think there is still a significant gap between the technical capabilities of Purview and the ability to drive compliance or prove compliance through its use. I think this is a major gap that Microsoft does not adequately address. Purview is not a GRC tool. It is a set of security features, labeling features, and lifecycle features that do not come close to GRC tooling in terms of functionality. Additionally, there is no strong integration with the compliance framework, either in terms of rolling it out or proving our adherence to it.

I would like to see improvements to the compliance manager, such as making it easier to start small and grow over time. This is not possible at this time.

The current event-based retention management is very poor. This is an area that needs improvement. We need to be able to more natively or near natively label content for retention and sensitivity across other lines of business systems like Workday and ServiceNow. This would allow us to extend labeling to those applications and make it native. This would be of great benefit to our clients.

Purview's DLP protection has some downsides. One downside is that the tips only appear in native applications. This means that users will not see them in other applications, such as web browsers. Another downside is that the tips only cover a subset of all the information. This means that users may still need to seek out additional information elsewhere.

The technical support has room for improvement.

I have been using Microsoft Purview for a year and a half.

Microsoft Purview is extremely stable.

Microsoft Purview is highly scalable.

The first level of support is not very knowledgeable and it is hard to get proper support because of the procedures in place.

Neutral

The initial deployment was complex, but not because of technical difficulties. The main challenge was engaging end users and getting them to adopt the new system. This was because the system required them to think about information in a new way. The deployment took around 12 months and required five to ten people working two days a week.

The implementation was completed in-house.

The return on investment is very good for what Purview offers, but it does lack some of the features that other solutions have. For example, if we're replacing something that already exists, we could do something cheaper or quicker. However, the value of this solution is in its ability to mitigate risk. If we don't have any type of classification and security in place, we're always opening ourselves up to risks. The cost of this solution is high, but the cost of not having it could be much higher. The return on investment is around 200 percent.

Some people find the tier licensing system complicated, but it offers a lot of value for money if we use the features. In fact, many clients who use the E5 licenses find that they can get a better return on investment on those licenses. Once they do, they find that the tier licensing system is very fairly priced.

I give Microsoft Purview an eight out of ten.

Time to value is quite long, especially when it impacts end users and requires new skills and knowledge. This is especially true in IT departments and on the business side. However, once the value is realized, the return on investment can be very good.

This type of solution is deployed across the entire Microsoft 365 tenant. It also has an Azure side, which is two things across that tenant as well. There is no area where it is used more or less. However, there is more interest in the areas of security and privacy. Therefore, legal, HR and IT are the most likely places to deploy this solution. Finance and merger and acquisition are also areas where people have more interest in deploying Purview. However, it is normally deployed across the entire organization.

We have around 30 clients consisting of anywhere between 20,000 and 50,000 users.

The maintenance is overseen by a full-time compliance technical person and a compliance business person.

I would advise assessing the maturity of the people and processes before using these types of tools. The technical side of things is not too complicated but we need to have the people and processes in place to classify all of our information and to ensure that our policies are being triggered. This can be a challenge for many organizations, as most have dark data, especially on structured clients. Ultimately, it is the people and the processes that make the success of these tools, not the technology itself.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I have been using Microsoft Purview for six months.

I would rate the stability of Purview a nine out of ten.

Purview can meet our scalability needs.

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.

Neutral

We previously used Azure Information Protection and Symantec DLP. We switched to Microsoft Purview because of the cost savings.

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.

We have seen a return on investment, but it is too early to quantify the exact savings.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.  

I have been using this solution for a year. 

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.

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.

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.

Positive

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.

The initial setup was straightforward, with minimal dependency on the administrators.

We didn't get help from the integrator, reseller, or consultant.

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.

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.

Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten.  

To ensure compliance with numerous regulations for our data governance initiative, we employ Microsoft Purview for data classification.

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.

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.

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.

I have been using Microsoft Purview for one year.

I would rate the stability of Purview a nine out of ten.

Purview is easily scalable in the cloud.

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.

Positive

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.

The initial deployment was straightforward. The cloud administrator handled the subscription and all the necessary paperwork, while I proceeded with the setup.

The price is reasonable considering its value.

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.