Case Study:
Leveraging Microsoft 365 Capabilities to implement Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) Strategy for a leading California based Data Centre service provider

Industry: Data Centers, Internet Connections, IT Services

Home » M365 MIP Strategy

Company

The client is a leading American MNC specializing in Data centers and Internet Connections. The client has a leading market share in global colocation datacenters with 200+ datacenters across the globe.

Solution Summary

The client’s Corporate Legal Team defined a new Data Retention Schedule with a requirement for all data systems, both, structured and unstructured, to implement the schedule based on the controls available in each platform. They had an existing Microsoft 365 content footprint of approximately 60 Terabytes with an additional 140 Terabytes being migrated from Box and File Shares.

We partnered with the client to educate them on the MIP capabilities, consulted the proper controls to enforce, defined the technical roll-out strategy, and the service adoption & change management plan.

Challenge

  • The client had a very complex and wide range of retention schedule that spanned its geographic locations across the globe.
  • They had an over-arching multi-year program that demanded establishing Records Management and Retention Schedules across all business data platforms.
  • Yet another challenging task was to translate the Corporate Legal Team’s Data Retention Schedule Requirements into Microsoft 365 Capabilities.
  • It was imperative to define a Roll-out & Operations Strategy in a way to minimize business impact during initial deployment and ongoing maintenance.

Solution Strategy

To execute and implement this project meant a large amount of data movement from external tools and platforms to Microsoft 365. To carryout this effectively we educated the Client’s Information Governance Team on the Capabilities of Microsoft Information Protection.

We partnered together to develop a Solution Architecture to meet the requirements of the Client’s Corporate Legal Team.

Since the implementation of this initiative meant a huge impact across its global offices in terms of Change, we crafted a deployment strategy with a heavy focus on Service Adoption & Change Management to ensure project success.

On a task level we executed the below:

  • Conducted 8 Workshops to educate on MIP Capabilities and consult on technical decisions for control implementation.
  • Translated the 56 record definitions and associated country variations into approximately 150 Retention Labels and approximately 20 Label Policies.
  • Defined processes for record types that relied on external systems for the retention period to be triggered.
  • Defined approach to developing auto-labeling policies at scale and content owner touchpoints to reduce business burden.
  • Prepared a Policy Rollout Runbook to outline step-by-step activities to be executed during the rollout as batches of sites are onboarded as “Records-Enabled Production Sites.
  • Crafted a Change Management and Communications Plan detailing the messaging, training options, and training agenda details to be executed over the course of the multi-year implementation.
  • Provisioned a Proof-of-Concept M365 Tenant with the client-specific policies implemented to provide the Information. Governance Team the ability to test drive the configuration before finalizing the Solution Architecture.

Results

The below results were accomplished after successful implementation of the project.

  • The strategy engagement successfully defined the path forward to ensure that the Corporate Legal Team’s Mandate can be adhered to in Microsoft 365.
  • Sensitivity labels from the Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) solution were implemented which resulted in classifying and protecting the client’s data while ensuring that user productivity and their ability to collaborate is not affected.
  • Implemented M365 Records Management Governance to establish a set of rules that allows for sustainable platform growth while continuing to align the technology with the ever-changing legal & compliance requirements.
  • We are now partnering with the client to own the delivery of the multi-year roll out across all 200 TB of M365 content.

Ensuring last mile Data Security and Protection with Microsoft Information Protection (MIP)

Implementing MIP helps in discovering, classifying and protecting sensitive information, no matter where it is stored or moved. MIP comes with tools that help you to Know your Data, Protect your Data and Prevent Data Loss.





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