TL;DR
Microsoft Purview is Microsoft’s family of tools for data security, data governance and data compliance across Microsoft 365, Azure, Fabric and other clouds. Its features find sensitive files, label them, block risky sharing, catalog trusted data and keep the records auditors ask for. Teams use it to prepare for Copilot, stop oversharing and pass audits. Set it up one data domain at a time. Run every new rule in simulation before you enforce it. Outside Microsoft, Purview can still scan and inventory most sources, but labels and policies reach only a few of them.
Key Takeaways Purview groups its tools into three areas, data security, data governance and data compliance, so one portal covers all three. Billing runs on two models, because security and compliance come with per-user Microsoft 365 licences while governance bills on Azure pay-as-you-go. Source coverage varies, so Purview can scan Amazon S3, Snowflake and SAP while labels, policies and lineage reach far fewer sources. Setup works best one domain at a time, with one owner, one source and one data product before you scale. Catalog access does not grant data access, and classification alone does not stop a leak, so permissions and DLP still need setting up. Kanerika’s Purview work for a global bank delivered 0% data breaches and 100% adherence to compliance regulations. Watch on YouTube
Transform Your Data Strategy with Microsoft Purview: Governance, Security & Growth
A walkthrough of how Purview brings governance and data security together in one programme, and what that changes for teams that own sensitive data.
The Copilot Rollout That Stalled on One Question Picture a Copilot pilot that is ready to switch on for the whole sales team. Before sign-off, the security lead asks one question. Which SharePoint sites and SQL tables hold customer PII, and who can open them?
Nobody in the room can answer, so the rollout pauses. That pause is still cheaper than the alternative. IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach report puts the global average breach at USD 4.99 million in 2026, up 12% and a record high.
Microsoft Purview exists to answer the question asked in that meeting. Which of its three areas you switch on first decides how quickly the answer arrives, and also what it costs to get there.
What Is Microsoft Purview? Microsoft Purview is a family of Microsoft tools that find, classify, govern and protect an organization’s data. It reaches files and mail in Microsoft 365, databases in Azure and other clouds, managed devices, and also the AI apps employees use at work.
The Purview overview on Microsoft Learn sorts the products into three solution areas. A shared layer sits underneath them, made up of building blocks such as sensitive information classifiers, connectors, the data and activity explorers, and sensitivity labels. Because that layer is shared, the parts reinforce each other. For example, one definition of a credit card number can drive an auto-labeling rule and a DLP rule at the same time.
For a buyer, the practical meaning is simple. You license and switch on the areas you need, since each one answers a different question from the business.
The Three Solution Areas Each area maps to a question that a security lead, a data owner or an auditor tends to ask. The table uses Microsoft’s own product names, so it also doubles as a map of the portal.
Solution area Main solutions Question it answers Data security Data Loss Prevention, Information Protection, Insider Risk Management, Information Barriers, Privileged Access Management and Data Security Investigations, plus DSPM (generally available since May 2026) Who can see or move sensitive data, and when? Data governance Data Map, Unified Catalog What data do we have, where does it live, and who owns it? Data compliance Audit, Communication Compliance, Compliance Manager, Data Lifecycle Management, eDiscovery, Records Management Can we prove our controls when an auditor or a court asks?
A first project rarely needs all three areas at once. Pairing data governance for analytics data with security for Microsoft 365 content is a sensible start, because the two share labels and classifiers.
From Azure Purview to Microsoft Purview The name still confuses buyers because it used to mean something narrower. Azure Purview was a data catalog and governance service, while the Microsoft 365 compliance portfolio was a separate set of tools. Microsoft then merged both under one brand on 19 April 2022.
Two more changes matter when you read older guides. Governance moved to pay-as-you-go billing on 6 January 2025. Tenants that have not consented can still use the classic Data Catalog in the classic portal. Product names changed too: Purview Information Protection was formerly Microsoft Information Protection.
Guides that quote Azure Purview capacity units describe a product that has since moved on. Check the date on any setup advice before you follow it.
How Microsoft Purview Works Purview runs on two paths that meet in one portal. One path builds a map of what data exists and who owns it. The other path applies rules when people open, share or paste content every day.
Keeping the two paths separate prevents a common planning error. A team that buys Purview to stop oversharing spends its first month on labels and DLP instead of database scans. By contrast, a catalog project for Microsoft Fabric and Power BI starts with the Data Map and may skip DLP in phase one.
The Governance Path The Data Map is the inventory. It scans registered sources through an Azure integration runtime, or through a self-hosted runtime on your own Windows machine. Each scan collects technical metadata, schema and classifications, and also data lineage when the source supports it.
The Unified Catalog then sits on top as the business layer. Governance domains group data by business area, while data products bundle tables and reports into something a person can find and request. Glossary terms, owners, data quality rules and access requests also live in this layer.
A finance domain shows how the layers connect. For instance, it might publish a “Monthly revenue” data product built from three SQL tables. The product then carries a named owner and an agreed definition of revenue as a glossary term.
The Security and Compliance Path This path works on content rather than on catalog entries. Classifiers spot sensitive information types such as card numbers or national ID numbers. Sensitivity labels then mark the file or email, encrypt it when configured, and travel with the content.
DLP policies watch where sensitive content goes across Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams and managed endpoints. Retention policies keep or delete content on a schedule, while Audit records who did what. Picture a spreadsheet of card numbers that is auto-labeled Confidential. When someone tries to email it to a personal address, DLP blocks the send.
What Purview Does Not Do on Its Own Three assumptions cause trouble in early rollouts, because each one treats a visibility tool as an enforcement tool. The table separates what Purview records from what someone still has to configure.
Assumption What actually happens What to do instead A catalog permission lets people read the data Unified Catalog roles cover metadata, so reading the rows still depends on source permissions or an approved access request. Manage data access in the source, or route it through catalog access requests that an owner approves. Classification stops leaks A classification only tags the data. Nothing blocks a share until a label or DLP policy acts on that tag. Pair each sensitive information type with a label or DLP rule before you rely on it. A Compliance Manager template makes us compliant Templates list controls and track a score, while evidence, owners and remediation still sit with your teams. Give every improvement action an owner and a piece of evidence.
Read the table as a division of labour. Purview tells you where the risk is, and then your policies, permissions and owners decide what happens next.
Datasheet
Elevate Data Governance, Compliance and Security of Your Organization
Kanerika’s datasheet sets out how its governance, compliance and data security services run on Microsoft Purview, with the scope of each and what a team gets at the end.
View the Datasheet → Purview Features by Solution Area The feature list is long, so it helps to read it by job rather than alphabetically. The table lists the features teams use in a first or second phase, what each does in plain terms, and where to read more.
Feature What it does Licence note or guide Data Loss Prevention Detects and blocks risky sharing of sensitive data in Microsoft 365, on endpoints and in some third-party apps Purview DLP guide Information Protection Classifies, marks and encrypts files and email with labels that travel with the content Label guide in Data Security Features Insider Risk Management Flags risky user activity, such as bulk downloads by someone about to leave Comes with the Purview Suite add-on Data Map Scans sources and collects metadata, classifications and lineage Source matrix later in this guide Unified Catalog Adds governance domains, data products, glossary terms, owners and data quality Catalog guide in Data Governance Features Audit Records user and admin activity so investigators can trace events Included with Microsoft 365 E3 eDiscovery Finds, holds and exports content when a legal matter opens Purview eDiscovery guide Data Lifecycle and Records Management Retains or deletes content by policy and declares formal records Records Management also needs the Purview Suite Compliance Manager Tracks control status against regulatory templates Included with Microsoft 365 E3 DSPM (including AI apps) Shows which AI apps touch sensitive data, then suggests policies Copilot and AI section below
Data Security Features Security features apply data security controls to content wherever it travels. Many tenants already own more of these features than they use, as the licensing section below shows. Kanerika’s Purview Information Protection guide covers label design and encryption in depth.
Insider Risk Management watches for data theft by departing staff, while Communication Compliance covers teams such as traders and advisers whose conversations are regulated.
Data Governance Features Governance features answer where data lives, what it means and who owns it. The Data Map does the scanning, and then the Unified Catalog turns raw assets into governed data products with terms, owners and quality scores. Kanerika’s Purview data catalog guide walks through domains, data products and access requests in more detail.
One design choice shapes both cost and adoption. Data Map assets that are not linked to a governance concept are not billed, so a broad scan costs little until you start curating. That makes it safe to scan wide for discovery while you stay narrow for curation.
Data Compliance Features Compliance features produce the evidence a regulator or a court asks for. Audit keeps an activity log, eDiscovery finds and holds content for legal matters, and Data Lifecycle Management applies retention. Records Management adds formal record declarations.
These tools assume a governance programme already exists, with policies and accountable owners. Kanerika’s guide to data governance with Microsoft Purview covers that programme side, including risk and compliance roles.
Microsoft Purview for Copilot and AI Apps AI assistants read whatever a user is allowed to read, so old oversharing turns into a search result. Purview’s protections for AI apps cover Microsoft 365 Copilot, Security Copilot, Copilot in Fabric and Copilot Studio. They also reach enterprise AI apps and other AI apps found through Defender for Cloud Apps.
Data Security Posture Management (DSPM), generally available since May 2026, is the place to start; the older DSPM for AI is labelled classic. Both show which AI apps touch sensitive data and suggest policies to close the gaps. That makes Purview the data layer of a wider AI governance programme. Coverage keeps widening. For example, Microsoft’s What’s new in Purview page logged expanded support for Anthropic Claude Enterprise in August 2026.
For the wider posture picture, see Kanerika’s guide to data security posture management . Its review of Microsoft Copilot security concerns also explains why labels should be in place before Copilot goes live.
On-Demand Webinar
Data Security Risks in AI: How Microsoft Purview Protects You
Kanerika’s on-demand session covers where AI assistants expose sensitive data and how Purview labels, DLP and AI controls close those gaps before a rollout.
Watch the Webinar → What Microsoft Purview Can Scan Beyond Azure: AWS, Snowflake, SAP and More Purview’s Data Map reaches well past Azure, which is why it appears on multi-cloud shortlists. Each connector, though, supports a different slice of the feature set. Microsoft’s supported data sources matrix lists four capabilities per source, so the gaps are easy to plan around.
The matrix below covers nine common sources. Classification means Purview can detect sensitive data types during a scan. Labels and policies mean it can apply sensitivity labels or access policies to that source. Lineage, in turn, shows where the data came from and where it flows.
Source Classification Sensitivity labels Policies Lineage Amazon S3 Yes No No Limited Amazon RDS Yes No No No Amazon Redshift No No No No Snowflake Yes Yes No Yes Azure Databricks Unity Catalog Yes No No Yes Google BigQuery No No No Yes SAP S/4HANA No No No Yes Microsoft Fabric No No No Yes Power BI No No No Yes
The pattern is plain once it sits in one table, since Purview can see far more than it can control. Snowflake gets classification, labels and lineage. By comparison, Fabric and Power BI get lineage only, while Amazon Redshift gets none of the four.
So treat Purview as the inventory for non-Microsoft sources, and keep enforcement in each platform’s own controls. Kanerika’s guide to Snowflake data governance shows what that native layer looks like on one of those platforms.
Scanning Amazon S3 in Four Steps Amazon S3 is the most frequent non-Azure request, and it works differently from an Azure scan. Microsoft’s Amazon S3 scanning guide describes a scanner that runs in a Microsoft AWS account, so it reads your buckets through a role you grant. The Multicloud Scanning Connector behind it is a separate add-on to Purview.
Create an AWS IAM role that trusts the Microsoft account ID and external ID shown in Purview, and attach the AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess policy. Create a Purview credential that holds that role’s ARN. Register the bucket or AWS account as a source in the Data Map. Run a scan and then review the results, since only metadata and classifications come back to Purview. Budget for the data movement as well. The Purview pricing page notes that governing AWS or Google Cloud data can add data transfer and API charges that vary by region. Kanerika met the same multi-source pattern at a global bank, where customer data sat across SAP, Dynamics 365, CRM, Oracle and Netezza.
Where Microsoft Purview Pays Off: Six Use Cases Purview earns its cost when it removes a specific blocker, such as an audit finding, a stalled Copilot rollout or a catalog nobody trusts. The six use cases below are common starting points, and each comes with a measure you can track.
Take the Copilot row. An oversharing assessment in DSPM lists the SharePoint sites where sensitive files are open to everyone. The team labels and locks down the worst sites first. The number to watch is how many of those sites still hold unlabeled sensitive content each week. Every row in the table follows the same logic: one blocker, one Purview capability, one number that shows progress.
Use case Problem it solves Purview capability KPI to track Govern Fabric and Power BI Reports multiply until nobody knows which dataset is the trusted one Data Map scans of Fabric and Power BI, lineage, Unified Catalog data products Share of certified reports with an owner and lineage Prepare data for Copilot Copilot surfaces files that were overshared years before the rollout DSPM, sensitivity labels, DLP Overshared sites that still hold sensitive content Stop file oversharing Confidential files leave through email, sharing links or USB drives Auto-labeling and DLP on Microsoft 365 and endpoints DLP incidents per month and false-positive rate Produce audit evidence Auditors ask who accessed personal data and when Audit, retention, Compliance Manager Hours to assemble an evidence pack Govern a platform migration Sensitive fields move to a new platform before anyone tags or owns them Data Map scans before and after cutover, classification, lineage Share of migrated tables classified and owned Build a multi-cloud inventory No single list of data exists across Azure, AWS, Snowflake and SAP Data Map connectors and the Multicloud Scanning Connector Share of in-scope sources registered and scanned
Which Use Case to Start With The Copilot row often moves first, because a paused AI rollout has a sponsor and a deadline. Labels applied for Copilot then carry straight into the oversharing and audit rows, so one piece of work serves three use cases.
Watch on YouTube
Elevating Enterprise Productivity and Security with Copilot and Purview
How Copilot and Purview work together, so teams get the productivity gains of AI assistants while sensitive content stays labeled and governed.
The other rows have their own natural starting points. The audit evidence row pairs well with Kanerika’s guide to GDPR and CCPA compliance , which covers what regulators ask to see. For the migration row, scan the source before cutover so sensitive columns arrive on the new platform already tagged.
Industry Snapshots Banking. Banks hold card data, account data and trading communications under several regimes at once. Classification, DLP and Communication Compliance therefore put those controls in one place.
Healthcare. Patient records spread across EHR exports, research files and email. Labels and DLP keep protected health information inside approved channels, while the catalog shows researchers which datasets they may request.
Manufacturing. Design files and supplier pricing are what competitors would most like to see. Insider Risk Management and endpoint DLP watch for bulk copies to USB drives and uploads to personal cloud storage.
Public sector. Records duties and freedom-of-information requests drive the work. Records Management and eDiscovery shorten the time it takes to find, hold and then release documents.
How to Set Up Microsoft Purview A first Purview setup succeeds when it is small enough to finish. The approach below governs one data domain and one source end to end, then runs the security side in simulation before anything scales.
Scanning every subscription on day one creates thousands of unowned assets, so the catalog loses trust before anyone uses it. Starting narrow instead gives you a working pattern, real cost data and a team that knows the portal.
Prerequisites Checklist Tenant and subscription. A Microsoft Entra tenant and an Azure subscription for governance billing.Roles. A Purview administrator, a data source administrator, a governance domain owner and at least one data steward.Billing choice. Consent to pay-as-you-go governance, or start on the free governance version . That version is a preview with one org-wide instance and limited features, so it suits evaluation and test. It covers Azure resources and Microsoft Fabric, though without support tickets.Region. Agree the Azure region with your compliance team before you create anything.Self-hosted runtime. For on-premises or private sources, you need a 64-bit Windows machine with .NET Framework 4.7.2 or later. It can run Windows 10 or 11, or Windows Server 2012 through 2025. Microsoft’s self-hosted integration runtime guide also recommends 8 cores, 28 GB of RAM and 80 GB of free disk.Network. Firewall and private endpoint rules so that the runtime can reach both the source and Purview.Business owner. A named person who will accept the first data product, then answer questions about it.Eight Steps to Your First Governed Data Source The eight steps take one domain from an empty portal to a searchable, owned data product. Each step has a clear exit, so the team always knows when to move on.
Pick the domain and owner. Choose one business area with a real question, such as finance reporting, and name its owner.Confirm account type and billing. Check whether the tenant runs pay-as-you-go governance or the classic Data Catalog, then set an Azure budget alert.Assign roles. Give the administrator, source administrator, domain owner and stewards their roles, and nobody else.Create the governance domain. Set it up in the Unified Catalog with a short description and the owner.Register one source. Add a single database, lakehouse or Power BI workspace to the Data Map.Scan and review classifications. Run the first scan, spot-check what Purview tagged as sensitive, and then correct the misses.Create a data product. Bundle the right tables or reports, attach glossary terms and owners, and publish it.Validate search, lineage and access requests. Ask a business user to find the product, follow its lineage and then request access.Steps five to seven are where most of the learning happens. The first scan shows how noisy default classifications are on your data, while the first data product shows how long curation really takes.
The Security Side, Run in Simulation First Data security setup follows the same rule of starting small. Publish a handful of sensitivity labels, such as Public, General, Confidential and Highly Confidential, before you design anything clever.
Then run auto-labeling in simulation mode, and put one DLP policy in simulation mode too. A DLP simulation runs for up to 15 days. During that window, review the matches and tune the false positives before you switch to enforcement. Microsoft also keeps extending DLP to new locations, with Box and Google Workspace in preview as of August 2026.
Estates with large non-Microsoft file stores sometimes run a second classification tool alongside Purview. Kanerika’s review of data classification tools compares the wider market.
How to Know the Setup Works A setup is done when it passes tests, which is later than the moment the wizard closes. Run these checks while the domain owner is in the room.
Test Pass condition Scan runs The scheduled scan completes without errors two runs in a row Coverage Every in-scope table or report from the source appears in the Data Map Classification spot check A sample of 20 assets shows sensitive columns tagged correctly, while misses are logged Glossary terms Every column in the data product maps to an approved term Owners The data product and each asset have a named owner and a steward Lineage Lineage shows the path from source to report when the connector supports it Cost meter Governed-asset counts and DGPU use in Azure Cost Management match the plan
Once all seven pass, repeat the pattern for the next domain. Kanerika’s data governance best practices explain how to scale ownership as the number of domains grows.
Checklist
Data Governance Checklist
A practical checklist for the ownership, policy and quality decisions a governance rollout needs, useful as a companion to the acceptance tests above.
Get the Checklist → How Purview Is Licensed and Billed Purview has two billing models, and mixing them up is a frequent budgeting error. Security and compliance features come with per-user Microsoft 365 licences. Governance features, by contrast, bill on Azure pay-as-you-go, based on what you actually govern. The prices below are Microsoft’s US list prices as of October 2026.
Billing model What it covers How it bills Price reference Per-user Microsoft 365 licence DLP, Information Protection, Insider Risk, Audit, eDiscovery, retention, Compliance Manager Per user per month, through Microsoft 365 E3, E5 or the Purview Suite add-on Purview Suite $12.00 per user per month, paid yearly, on top of E3. Microsoft 365 E5 lists at $60.00. Azure pay-as-you-go Data Map, Unified Catalog, data quality and data health Unique governed assets per day, plus data governance processing units (DGPUs) when quality and health jobs run 200 governed assets for 30 days is $100 in Microsoft’s example
Microsoft’s data governance billing guide explains the governance meter. Assets in the Data Map that are not linked to a governance concept are not billed. One DGPU equals 60 minutes of compute. In Microsoft’s own example, 100 Basic-tier quality rules at 0.02 DGPU each add up to 2 DGPUs in a day, which costs $30.
The example makes the arithmetic easy. Two hundred governed assets for 30 days cost $100, which works out to $0.50 per governed asset per month. Assuming the same rate, a domain with 1,000 governed assets would run about $500 a month before any data quality jobs.
What the Purview Suite Adds The Purview Suite , formerly sold as E5 Compliance, costs $12.00 per user per month on an annual plan and requires Microsoft 365 E3. E3 already includes DLP for Exchange, SharePoint and OneDrive, plus Information Protection, Audit, eDiscovery, Data Lifecycle Management and Compliance Manager. The Suite then adds Insider Risk Management, Communication Compliance, Records Management and auto-labeling.
Licence tiers, the E3 and E5 trade-offs and total cost of ownership are covered in Kanerika’s Purview licensing guide .
Talk to Kanerika
Planning a Purview Rollout?
Kanerika can size the governed-asset and per-user costs for your estate and map which Purview areas to switch on first. Book a short working session with the team.
Book a Meeting → Common Purview Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Most Purview setbacks trace back to three things: scope, ownership and wrong assumptions about what the tool enforces. The seven mistakes below show up most often, each with the control that prevents it.
Mistake What breaks Control Scanning everything first Thousands of unowned assets appear, so classifications get noisy and the bill rises Start with one domain, then expand by a tested pattern No named owners Data products go stale while access requests sit unanswered Name an owner and a steward before publishing Assuming catalog permissions secure data People see metadata while access to the data itself goes unmanaged Manage access in the source or through approved access requests Treating classification as DLP Sensitive data is tagged but still leaves the tenant Pair classifiers with a DLP policy, run it in simulation, then enforce Expecting full lineage everywhere Gaps appear on Amazon S3, RDS, Redshift and other sources Check the source matrix before you promise lineage, and document each gap Ignoring meters and scan schedules Frequent full scans and data quality jobs push up asset and DGPU costs Schedule scans to match change rates, then review cost weekly Treating templates as compliance A Compliance Manager score looks good while controls still lack evidence Give each improvement action an owner and evidence
The first two mistakes are the hardest to undo. Ownership is cheap to assign at ten assets and expensive at ten thousand, because by then nobody remembers who asked for what.
A written data governance framework settles ownership questions before the first scan. It also gives stewards a rulebook when the inevitable classification disputes arrive.
When Purview Fits and When It Does Not Purview is strongest when Microsoft already runs most of the estate, because labels, DLP and the catalog then share one identity and one portal. It is weaker when most data lives in platforms its connectors can only read.
The decision table gives a default for four common estates. Its limits come from Microsoft’s own documentation rather than from review-site opinion.
Scenario How to use Purview here Reason Microsoft 365 plus a Fabric or Azure data estate Microsoft Purview across all three areas One identity, shared labels, and native Fabric and Power BI lineage Microsoft 365 oversharing ahead of Copilot Purview security area first, then governance later DSPM, labels and DLP address the risk directly Databricks-centred estate Use Purview for Microsoft 365 content and as the inventory and lineage view, and keep enforcement in Unity Catalog Purview classifies Unity Catalog data and shows lineage, but applies no labels or policies there Large non-Microsoft estate across SAP, Snowflake and AWS Use Purview as the inventory, then check the source matrix for each control you need before committing Scan reach is wide, while labels and policies reach few non-Microsoft sources
Head-to-head detail lives in three Kanerika comparisons. Start with Purview vs Collibra vs Alation , then read the Purview vs Collibra deep dive and the Unity Catalog, Purview and Collibra comparison .
For a broader view of governance tooling beyond Purview, Kanerika’s enterprise data catalog guide explains what any catalog must do well.
Kanerika Service
Data Governance Services
Kanerika designs and runs data governance programmes, from ownership models and policies to catalog and data security rollouts on Microsoft Purview.
Explore Data Governance Services How Kanerika Implements Purview Kanerika was one of the earliest Microsoft Purview implementers globally. Its kanGovern, kanComply and kanGuard solutions extend Purview for governance, compliance and data loss prevention. Each engagement follows the same five stages, so the first domain sets the pattern for the rest.
Assess. Inventory sources, regulations and sensitive data types, then pick the first domain.Design. Define domains, roles, the label taxonomy, DLP scope and the billing model.Implement. Register sources, run scans, build data products, and publish labels and policies in simulation.Validate. Run the acceptance tests with owners, then tune classifications and policies.Operate. Hand over runbooks, cost reviews and a schedule for adding domains.Case Study: Governing Customer Data for a Global Bank Challenge. A global bank with about 9,000 branches and 22,000 ATMs held customer data across SAP, Dynamics 365, CRM, Oracle and Netezza. It needed to find and classify sensitive data across those systems, then prove control over it. Until then, staff identified and classified sensitive data by hand, which was slow and error-prone. Privacy laws required that classification across every source system and the central Lakehouse.
What Kanerika did. The team used the Purview Data Map for automated discovery and classification of PII, PCI and PHI. It then applied Purview policies to the classified data and automated lineage into the bank’s Lakehouse.
Result. The engagement’s published outcomes are 0% data breaches and 100% adherence to compliance regulations. The same assess-first pattern anchors every Purview rollout Kanerika runs through its Microsoft Purview practice .
Case Study
Zero Breaches, 100% Compliance for a Bank with Purview
Kanerika helped a global bank with data across SAP, Dynamics 365, CRM, Oracle and Netezza use Purview Data Map discovery, PII, PCI and PHI classification, and automated lineage. Published outcomes are 0% data breaches and 100% compliance adherence.
Read the Case Study → Getting Started with Microsoft Purview A first Purview win fits in a short list. Pick one domain and an owner, then confirm billing and roles. Register and scan one source before you publish one data product with terms and owners. Finally, run labels and one DLP policy in simulation, and pass the acceptance tests before you scale.
Keep the order in mind as you plan. Governance tells you what you hold, security controls how it moves, and compliance proves both to an auditor. Microsoft Purview delivers features for data security, governance and compliance, with use cases from Copilot readiness to audit evidence. Its setup works best one governed domain at a time.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Microsoft Purview? Microsoft Purview is Microsoft’s family of tools for data security, data governance and data compliance. It runs from one portal and covers Microsoft 365 content, Azure and multi-cloud data sources, managed devices and AI apps. Organizations use it to find sensitive data, label and protect it, catalog trusted data products and keep the audit evidence regulators request.
What are the main features of Microsoft Purview? The main features sit in three areas. Data security includes Data Loss Prevention, Information Protection, Insider Risk Management and Information Barriers. Data governance includes the Data Map and the Unified Catalog. Data compliance includes Audit, eDiscovery, Data Lifecycle Management, Records Management, Communication Compliance and Compliance Manager. Shared classifiers and sensitivity labels connect all three areas together.
How much does Microsoft Purview cost? Purview costs depend on two billing models. Security and compliance features come with per-user licences, and, as of October 2026, the Purview Suite add-on lists at $12.00 per user per month on top of Microsoft 365 E3. Governance bills on Azure pay-as-you-go per governed asset. Microsoft’s own example prices 200 governed assets for 30 days at $100.
Is Microsoft Purview free? A free version of Purview data governance exists in preview. It has one organization-wide instance with limited capabilities, covers Azure resources and Microsoft Fabric, and is meant for evaluation, development and testing without support tickets. Production governance uses pay-as-you-go billing. Security and compliance features come with the Microsoft 365 licences an organization already pays for.
Is Microsoft Purview included in Microsoft 365 E3? Part of it is. Microsoft 365 E3 includes DLP for Exchange, SharePoint and OneDrive, Information Protection, Audit, eDiscovery, Data Lifecycle Management and Compliance Manager. The Purview Suite add-on, which needs E3, adds Insider Risk Management, Communication Compliance, Records Management and auto-labeling. Data governance through the Data Map and Unified Catalog bills separately in Azure.
What is similar to Microsoft Purview? For data governance and cataloging, the closest alternatives are Collibra, Alation and Databricks Unity Catalog. Collibra and Alation focus on cross-platform catalogs and stewardship workflows. Unity Catalog governs data inside Databricks. For data security and compliance, buyers usually compare Purview with dedicated DLP and data security posture tools from other vendors on the market.
Which organizations use Microsoft Purview? Purview suits organizations that run on Microsoft 365, Azure or Fabric and handle regulated data. Banks, insurers, healthcare providers, manufacturers and public sector bodies are typical users. Kanerika implemented Purview for a global bank with about 9,000 branches, with published results of 0% data breaches and 100% adherence to compliance regulations after the rollout.
Does Microsoft Purview use AI? Yes, in two ways. Purview uses built-in classifiers to recognize sensitive information such as card numbers and personal data automatically. It also protects AI use itself, covering Microsoft 365 Copilot, Security Copilot, Copilot in Fabric, Copilot Studio and other AI apps. DSPM, generally available since May 2026 alongside the classic DSPM for AI, shows which AI apps touch sensitive data.
What is the difference between Data Map and Unified Catalog? The Data Map is the technical layer. It scans sources and stores metadata, schemas, classifications and lineage. The Unified Catalog is the business layer on top. It organizes assets into governance domains and data products with glossary terms, owners, data quality rules and access requests. Only assets linked to governance concepts are billed.
Which data sources can Microsoft Purview scan? Purview can scan Azure sources, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, Snowflake, Azure Databricks Unity Catalog, Google BigQuery, SAP S/4HANA and many more. Capabilities vary by source. Snowflake supports classification, labels and lineage, while Redshift supports none of the four capabilities. Check Microsoft’s supported sources matrix before planning any scan.
How do you set up Microsoft Purview for the first time? Start small. Pick one business domain and owner, confirm billing and roles, and create a governance domain in the Unified Catalog. Register one source, scan it and review classifications. Publish one data product with glossary terms and owners. Then run sensitivity labels and one DLP policy in simulation before enforcing anything across the tenant.
Can Microsoft Purview protect data used by Microsoft 365 Copilot? Yes. Purview covers Microsoft 365 Copilot through DSPM, sensitivity labels and DLP. DSPM, generally available since May 2026 alongside the classic DSPM for AI, shows where sensitive data is exposed to AI apps and suggests policies. Labels control what Copilot can read and return. DLP can stop sensitive content from being processed, so oversharing is fixed before Copilot goes live.
What problems does Microsoft Purview solve? Purview solves three common problems and delivers the benefits that follow from them. It shows what data an organization holds, where it lives and who owns it. It stops sensitive files and messages from being overshared, including through Copilot. It also produces audit logs, retention records and eDiscovery results that shorten the time needed to answer auditors.
When should you use Microsoft Purview? Use Purview when most of your data and collaboration already runs on Microsoft 365, Azure or Microsoft Fabric. It also suits regulated industries that need labeling, DLP and audit evidence in one place. Teams preparing a Copilot rollout use it to find and fix oversharing first. Estates built mostly on other platforms should compare alternatives before committing.
Is Azure Purview the same as Microsoft Purview? Azure Purview was the earlier name of the data governance service, so it is now part of Microsoft Purview. On 19 April 2022 Microsoft combined Azure Purview with the Microsoft 365 compliance portfolio under one brand. The old catalog capabilities now live in the Data Map and Unified Catalog. Guides that mention Azure Purview describe the older product.
What does Microsoft Purview replace? Purview replaced several older names. Azure Purview became the governance part of Microsoft Purview. The Microsoft 365 compliance center and its solutions moved into the Purview portal. Microsoft Information Protection became Purview Information Protection. Teams reading older documentation should search for these former names, because many setup guides and forum answers still use them.
Is Microsoft Purview the same as Azure Information Protection? No. Azure Information Protection was an earlier Microsoft labeling service. Its labeling role now sits in Purview Information Protection, which was formerly called Microsoft Information Protection. Purview Information Protection is one solution inside Microsoft Purview. The wider family also covers data loss prevention, insider risk, the Data Map, the Unified Catalog, audit and eDiscovery.
Is Microsoft Purview a DLP tool? Data Loss Prevention is one solution inside Microsoft Purview, so Purview includes DLP and much more. Purview DLP detects and blocks risky sharing of sensitive data across Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, managed endpoints and some third-party apps. The same family also handles sensitivity labels, insider risk, data cataloging, audit, retention and eDiscovery for the organization.
Is Microsoft Purview a cybersecurity tool? Purview is a data security and compliance tool. It protects the data itself through classification, sensitivity labels, DLP and insider risk controls. It does not replace threat detection tools such as a SIEM or an XDR platform, which Microsoft covers with Sentinel and Defender. Many security teams run Purview alongside those tools as one stack.
Is Microsoft Purview part of Office 365? Many Purview security and compliance capabilities come with Microsoft 365 and Office 365 enterprise licences. Microsoft 365 E3 includes DLP for Exchange, SharePoint and OneDrive, Information Protection, Audit and eDiscovery. The Purview Suite and E5 add more. Purview data governance, meaning the Data Map and Unified Catalog, bills separately through an Azure subscription.
