5 Ways to Close the Gaps in Data Governance

As organizations navigate hybrid connectivity cloud environments, diverse data formats, and a remote workforce, the challenges of maintaining data security and compliance grow. Microsoft Purview Information Protection (MPIP) offers a robust foundation for safeguarding sensitive information, but there are a few gaps that should be addressed to prevent you from settling with “good enough” coverage.

Is “good enough” acceptable when you’ve had an adverse incident?

By integrating Spirion with Microsoft Purview, you can extend data coverage, enhance accuracy, and leverage more effective remediation for a more complete data protection strategy.
But can it take you beyond “good enough”?

Here’s five ways Spirion enhances Microsoft Purview to help protect your sensitive data :

1. Improved Accuracy with Reduced False Positives

One of the most significant challenges in data protection is ensuring that sensitive information is accurately identified and protected.

Spirion’s proprietary technology delivers an industry-leading 98.5% accuracy in data discovery and classification. This precision significantly reduces false positives to below 2%. Less false positives means your team has more time to focus on real threats rather than sifting through false alarms.

Benefit: More reliable data classification and fewer distractions from false positives, leading to a more efficient and effective data protection strategy.

2. Extended Hybrid, Cloud, and SaaS Support 

While Microsoft Purview excels within the Azure environment, many organizations operate in complex IT landscapes that span multiple cloud platforms, SaaS applications, and on-premises assets. Sound familiar?

Spirion broadens data protection beyond Azure, providing extended support for various cloud platforms (such as AWS and Google Cloud), SaaS applications, and even assets behind the firewall. This ensures thorough data coverage in any environment, whether it’s cloud, hybrid, or on-premises.

Benefit: All your sensitive data—no matter where it lives—is discovered, classified, and protected, eliminating the blind spots that could leave your organization vulnerable. 

3. Enhanced File Format Support

Data comes in many forms, and protecting it effectively means supporting a wide variety of file types.

Spirion enhances Microsoft Purview’s capabilities by supporting diverse file formats without modifying their native extensions. This helps improve data management across your organization, ensuring that sensitive data in all forms—whether documents, images, scripts, or log files—is accurately discovered and protected.

Benefit: Confidently manage and protect sensitive data across all file types, reducing the risk of exposure and ensuring compliance with data protection regulations.

4. Critical Endpoint Data Discovery

In today’s hybrid work environment, securing data on endpoints—such as employee laptops, remote servers, and local workstations—is important to reduce security risk.

Spirion provides critical endpoint data discovery capabilities across Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms, ensuring that sensitive data stored on these devices is protected. This is particularly important as hybrid connectivity continues to blur the lines between personal and professional data, increasing the risk of unauthorized access and data breaches.

Benefit: Sensitive data is protected at its source, even on disconnected or remote endpoints, reducing the risk of data breaches and ensuring comprehensive coverage across your entire organization.

5. Context-Sensitive Classification

Understanding the context of your data is key to effective protection and compliance.

Spirion’s context-sensitive classification works with Microsoft Purview’s labeling capabilities, allowing for more nuanced and enriched data classification activities. This interoperability enhances your ability to govern data according to its specific context, such as applicable regulations, business processes, and sensitivity levels.

Benefit: By integrating Spirion with Microsoft Purview, you achieve a more comprehensive understanding of your data, leading to better governance, stronger compliance, and more effective data protection.  

Spirion + MPIP = Comprehensive Sensitive Data Security

Combining Microsoft Purview with Spirion provides a powerful solution that addresses today’s sensitive data protection and compliance requirements. By closing critical gaps in data governance, Spirion enhances Purview’s capabilities, offering extended coverage, improved accuracy, and seamless data management across diverse environments. For organizations looking to expand their data protection strategy, integrating Spirion with Microsoft Purview is a practical and effective approach to achieving comprehensive data security.