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Microsoft 365 is a powerhouse of tools designed to enhance collaboration and productivity. Services like Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive are the stars of the show, but the ecosystem is vast, with each service often creating resources in others.
While this integration is brilliant for productivity, it can lead to content sprawl if not managed carefully. Let’s dig into how this happens and why robust governance is essential to keep everything under control.
How Microsoft 365 Services Create Resources in Other Services
One of the beauties of Microsoft 365 is its interconnectedness, but this can also be a double-edged sword. Here’s a breakdown of some key services and how they contribute to content sprawl:
Microsoft Teams
Teams and Channels: Every time a team is created, a SharePoint site is automatically provisioned to store files. Additionally, a OneNote notebook is linked, and conversations are archived in Exchange mailboxes.
Files Tab: When users share files in a channel, these are stored in the underlying SharePoint document library. However, personal chats store files in the sender’s OneDrive.
Apps and Tabs: Adding third-party or Microsoft apps to Teams can create additional resources, like Planner tasks or Power BI dashboards, spread across different services.
SharePoint Online
Document Libraries: SharePoint is the backbone of document storage in Microsoft 365. However, sites can proliferate quickly when users are given free rein to create them.
Integration with Other Apps: Features like embedding Power Automate workflows or Power Apps in SharePoint can result in additional resources being created and linked across the environment.
OneDrive for Business
Storage for Shared Files: Files shared in Teams' private chats are stored in the sender's OneDrive, making it a hub for personal collaboration.
Syncing and Offline Copies: Users syncing files locally can lead to multiple versions and potential duplication.
Other Services That Add to the Mix
Microsoft Planner: Creating a new plan generates a linked Group in Azure AD and resources in SharePoint and Teams.
Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI): These services often store data in SharePoint, Dataverse, or OneDrive, creating dependencies and links that can be hard to track.
Viva Engage: Conversations and files shared in Viva Engage communities can integrate with SharePoint and Teams.
Why Governance Is a Must in Microsoft 365
Without governance, the interconnected nature of Microsoft 365 can lead to a chaotic sprawl of content, which introduces risks and inefficiencies.
Security and Compliance Risks
Sensitive data can end up in the wrong hands due to oversharing of resources. Meeting compliance requirements like GDPR, NIS2, or ISO 27001 becomes challenging when resources are scattered.
Productivity Drain
Searching for the correct version of a document across Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive wastes valuable time. Redundant or duplicate resources clutter the environment, making navigation confusing.
Storage Costs
With duplication and unnecessary resource creation, storage costs can spiral out of control, especially for organizations with large data sets.
How to Implement Effective Governance
Robust governance can help tame the sprawl and ensure your Microsoft 365 environment stays secure, efficient, and cost-effective. Here’s how to do it:
1. Define Roles and Responsibilities
Assign clear ownership for each Microsoft 365 service. For example, a Teams administrator, SharePoint owner, and compliance officer should collaborate to manage the ecosystem.
2. Set Up Naming Conventions
Establish standardized naming conventions for Teams, SharePoint sites, and files. For example, prefix Teams names with department codes (e.g., "HR-Recruiting").
3. Control Resource Creation
Use Microsoft 365 Groups governance to limit who can create Teams, SharePoint sites, and Plans. Implement approval workflows for creating new resources, ensuring there’s a business justification.
4. Automate Lifecycle Management
Use tools like Azure AD group expiration policies or Microsoft Purview to archive or delete inactive Teams, sites, and files. Leverage retention policies to enforce data clean-up automatically.
5. Educate Users
Conduct regular training sessions to teach best practices for collaboration, file organization, and content management. Use tools like Microsoft Learning Pathways to deliver tailored guidance.
Over to you
As someone who loves the power of Microsoft 365, I know how easy it is to get carried away with its capabilities. But without governance, the very tools designed to make life easier can become a source of frustration. By proactively managing content sprawl and putting governance in place, we can unlock the full potential of Microsoft 365 while keeping our workspaces clean and organized.
Have you faced challenges with content sprawl in your organization? Share your experiences and tips in the comments below—I’d love to hear from you!
A word from Rencore
As an organization, collaboration and the creation of resources, content and thus shared knowledge and information is exactly what you should be striving for. Microsoft 365 is doing exactly that. And it even provides you with a set of tools that help you stay on top of this.
However, as your organization grows and as your users embrace the capabilities of Microsoft 365, you will reach a point where your IT department cannot keep up anymore relying on mostly manual or hard-coded processes and workloads.
This is exactly, where third-party governance tool providers like Rencore will help. Rencore Governance discovers sprawl, thus reducing security risks, increasing productivity and efficiency and reducing storage costs.
Rencore Governance also allows you to automate your governance processes around roles, creation of resources, and lifecycle management across all Microsoft 365 services and apps.
Do you want to experience Microsoft 365 governance on autopilot? Then try out Rencore Governance for free for 30 days.
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