Holistic Data Security and Compliance for Microsoft 365: Reducing Risk and Boosting Efficiency

1. Enhanced Compliance Posture 

Maintaining continuous compliance in a dynamic Microsoft 365 environment is a daunting task. Data is constantly created and modified in Exchange mailboxes, SharePoint sites, OneDrive folders, and Teams chats. This makes it hard to track where regulated or sensitive information lives. 

Rubrik’s platform strengthens your compliance posture by automating data discovery and classification across all these Microsoft 365 data sources. Rubrik for Microsoft 365 covers Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams, ensuring that no data silo is left unprotected. The solution scans data repositories to identify sensitive content (such as personal identifiers, financial data, or intellectual property) even as that data grows and moves. 

For example, Rubrik’s Sensitive Data Monitoring can scan backup snapshots of OneDrive and SharePoint to locate sensitive data (personally identifiable information, credit card numbers, health records, etc.) in files, helping you pinpoint compliance risks with minimal impact on production systems​.

Rubrik continuously classifies data over time—each time a new backup snapshot is taken or on a defined schedule—so that as data changes, your classification and compliance status stays up to date. This ongoing scanning and re-classification means you don’t just get a one-time report, but rather full compliance over time with evolving data.

Rubrik’s DSPM capabilities extend beyond basic backup analysis by incorporating enriched insights through Microsoft 365 API integrations. This combination allows Rubrik to surface and contextualize sensitive data and access patterns within Microsoft 365. By leveraging metadata and permission information retrieved via API, organizations gain broader visibility into their Microsoft 365 estate—including services like Exchange, OneDrive, and Teams. This integrated approach helps close compliance and security gaps that might be missed by solutions focused solely on data archiving or traditional backup.

Equally important, Rubrik maps discovered data to relevant regulations and retention policies. It comes with predefined classification policies aligned to major regulations (such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, SOX), and also allows custom policies for your unique needs​. This means the system can automatically flag data that falls under specific regulatory categories and ensure it’s handled appropriately. Reports and audit trails are built in, giving compliance teams clear documentation of where sensitive data resides and how it’s being protected. Rubrik automatically generates reports showing what sensitive data was found and where, which supports internal audits and external regulatory inquiries. With Rubrik as an always up-to-date classification and reporting mechanism, organizations can demonstrate compliance over time rather than just at a single point. 

In summary, Rubrik delivers an enhanced compliance posture by providing complete, continuous visibility into Microsoft 365 data, classifying it against your compliance policies, and proving through reports that your data remains in compliance as it evolves. This reduces the risk of compliance violations and the associated penalties or reputational damage. It’s a proactive stance—catching sensitive data in sprawling Microsoft 365 workloads before it slips through the cracks.

2.Improved Security Through Unified Data Controls

Data security is only as strong as your ability to control and protect sensitive information. In Microsoft 365, it’s easy to overshare files: a confidential document could be accidentally shared organization-wide, for instance. Or an email with a sensitive attachment might be forwarded externally. 

Rubrik fortifies your security posture by enforcing uniform data segmentation and labeling policies across the entire Microsoft 365 environment. Security and compliance teams can define what constitutes different data segments—for example, what is confidential IP vs. public data—and Rubrik will automatically apply those definitions to the data it scans. 

The platform leverages Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) sensitivity labels and a policy engine to tag data consistently. This means if your organization has standard labels like “Public,” “Internal,” “Confidential,” or custom tags for categories like “Legal,” “HR,” or “Intellectual Property,” Rubrik can recognize and use them. It will uniformly label files and emails according to your standards, or alert on items that deviate from policy. The benefit is organization-wide consistency: every piece of data is classified and tagged the same way regardless of where it lives, eliminating the patchwork of inconsistent labels or unmanaged sensitive files that often plague Microsoft 365 environments.

Critically, Rubrik makes this labeling automated and continuous, rather than relying on users to manually classify documents. In contrast, Microsoft’s native tools require an E5 license to auto-apply sensitivity labels, leaving E3 customers with only the ability to tag content manually. Rubrik closes this gap by automatically discovering sensitive content and applying the appropriate labels and protections – without requiring expensive license upgrades. 

With Rubrik DSPM, sensitive data is identified and labeled in line with security policy, ensuring that data handling rules (encryption, access control, DLP, etc.) tied to those labels are enforced uniformly. For instance, if a SharePoint file contains dozens of customer Social Security numbers but lacks the “Confidential” label, Rubrik will catch that and can apply the missing label or notify the data owner for remediation​. 

This policy-driven automation extends to user-defined segmentation: you can create custom detection rules (e.g., specific project codes or proprietary formulas) and Rubrik will scan for those and tag accordingly. The ability to define and enforce segmentation of data types means CISOs can ensure, for example, that legal documents are only in approved SharePoint sites, or that R&D design files are all labeled as “Intellectual Property” and stored in restricted OneDrives. Rubrik’s continuous monitoring will highlight any file that violates these segmentation policies.

In the screenshot below, Rubrik’s DSPM interface identifies an Microsoft 365 file as missing a required sensitivity label: a SharePoint document contains large volumes of sensitive personal data (names, email addresses, etc.) but has “No MIP labels detected.” Rubrik highlights the data at risk and allows one-click remediation by applying the correct confidential label. This kind of automated classification and labeling ensures that all sensitive data is uniformly tagged according to security policy, reducing the chance of human error or oversight.

3. Operational Efficiency and Cost Savings

In addition to bolstering security and compliance, Rubrik’s integrated solution drives significant efficiency gains and cost savings. A major advantage is the ability to use Rubrik’s DSPM features instead of costly Microsoft add-ons or separate tools. Many organizations today feel compelled to upgrade to Microsoft 365 E5 licensing to get advanced data governance and auto-classification capabilities. However, E5 licenses are expensive—they cost approximately $57 per user per month (vs. ~$36 for E3), and require annual commitment​. That can translate into millions of dollars for large enterprises. 

Rubrik delivers E5-like data protection on top of E3 licenses, effectively eliminating the need to pay for Microsoft’s highest-tier compliance features. For instance, as noted above, automatic sensitivity labeling and advanced Data Loss Prevention features are part of the E5 “Compliance” package​. Rubrik provides those capabilities (sensitive data discovery, automatic classification/tagging, and risk remediation) as part of its platform. This means an organization can stick with more affordable E3 licenses and rely on Rubrik to handle data tagging and posture management. 

The direct savings in licensing can be substantial and those savings can be reinvested in other security initiatives. Moreover, by consolidating backup and DSPM, Rubrik reduces the number of separate products you need to purchase and maintain—lowering overall tooling costs and administrative overhead.

Rubrik also drives efficiency through policy-based automation that streamlines data management tasks which would otherwise be manual. One example is detecting mislabeling or classification gaps at scale. In a native Microsoft 365 environment, finding files that are mislabeled or unlabeled (but contain sensitive info) is like finding needles in a haystack. Rubrik automates this by continuously evaluating data against your policies and immediately flagging any violations​. If hundreds of files were incorrectly labeled as “Public” instead of “Confidential” Rubrik can catch that discrepancy. 

Furthermore, the system can perform bulk remediation—applying correct labels or quarantine actions to many files at once—saving IT and security teams countless hours of correcting tags file by file. Through a unified policy engine, Rubrik ensures that data classification is always up to date: if a policy changes or new sensitive data types are added (e.g., you decide to start tagging “Source Code” as a category), Rubrik will automatically scan and classify data under the new rules without requiring a separate project or reconfiguration each time. This level of automation not only reduces labor but also minimizes the risk of error when dealing with large data sets.

Another huge efficiency gain comes from Rubrik’s integration with its enterprise backup and data protection platform. Traditional DSPM point solutions often operate separately—they need to connect to data sources and perform their own full scans, and sometimes even need to make copies of data to analyze it. This duplication of effort is inefficient and can strain production systems. 

Rubrik’s approach is far more efficient: it leverages the data it’s already backing up (your Microsoft 365 mailboxes, OneDrives, SharePoint, etc.) and concurrently analyze those backups for security posture without having to re-scan the production environment from scratch. In fact, unlike standalone DSPM tools that often require creating additional data copies or running disruptive scans on live systems, Rubrik’s integrated DSPM uses existing backup snapshots and infrastructure. 

This means no performance hit to your Microsoft 365 tenants and no need for separate “crawler” VMs or appliances—the data is scanned in the Rubrik Security Cloud platform asynchronously. It also means faster deployment since Rubrik is already wired into your environment for backups.

Turning on DSPM is as simple as toggling a feature, rather than deploying a new product. Standalone DSPM solutions can take months to deploy and integrate, whereas Rubrik DSPM can be enabled almost instantly within an existing Rubrik deployment​. The time-to-value is dramatically shorter. 

From an operations perspective, having backup and data security on one platform simplifies workflows: there’s a single pane of glass to manage data retention, recovery, and security posture. For example, if an issue is detected (like overly permissive sharing on a sensitive file), the admin can not only fix the label or permissions via Rubrik’s console but, if needed, also restore a prior version of that file—all within the same interface. This centralizes the classification and remediation process, avoiding the ping-pong between different systems. Fewer consoles and fewer processes mean less training, less risk of miscommunication, and lower admin costs overall.

Finally, the combination of these efficiencies often translates into tangible cost savings beyond licensing. By automating compliance tasks, companies can avoid hiring additional staff or consultants to manually audit data. By preventing data breaches and compliance fines (through early detection of risks), they avoid the enormous costs associated with incidents. Even storage costs can be optimized: Rubrik’s insights might reveal redundant, obsolete, or trivial data (ROT data) that can be purged or archived, thus reducing storage bloat—a feature often included in standalone DSPM products to control data sprawl​. 

All told, Rubrik delivers a leaner, smarter approach to Microsoft 365 data security that saves money (by removing the need for premium Microsoft licenses and extra tools) and saves time (through automation and integration). This operational efficiency means your team can focus on higher-value work instead of chasing mislabeled files or wrestling with multiple platforms.

4. Better Governance and Risk Insights

Good governance requires not just securing data, but also having the right insights to make informed decisions and respond to incidents. Rubrik’s integrated solution provides rich intelligence about your Microsoft 365 data risks, enabling proactive governance and faster incident response. One of the standout capabilities is its ability to detect publicly exposed or broadly accessible sensitive data. 

In many organizations, it’s alarmingly easy for a user to accidentally share a sensitive SharePoint document or for a link to a confidential OneDrive file to be open to the public. Rubrik continuously checks for these situations. It will detect files and folders in Microsoft 365 that contain sensitive information but are exposed via public or organization-wide access permissions, and alert you to those high-risk conditions​. 

With this visibility, administrators can rapidly remediate the issue by locking down the permissions or removing the file until it’s properly secured, for instance. This closes a major data governance gap by ensuring that sensitive data isn’t unintentionally left open to the whole company or the internet. In effect, Rubrik acts as a watchdog for data exposure, catching misconfigurations or oversights in Microsoft 365 sharing settings. This directly supports governance frameworks that demand strict control over who can access sensitive info.

Rubrik also provides improved risk assessment capabilities through its analytics and dashboards. Every piece of sensitive data discovered is not just listed, but contextualized with risk scoring. Rubrik’s Data Security Posture dashboard can calculate risk levels based on factors like the sensitivity of data and the scope of access.​ For example, a file containing thousands of credit card numbers that is widely shared has a much higher risk score than an encrypted file with a few internal IDs. These kinds of insights help security and compliance teams prioritize their efforts and focus first on the highest risk items. 

Rubrik also performs deep data access analysis, correlating sensitive data with user activity and access patterns. This provides visibility into which users have access to specific sensitive files and how frequently they interact with them. It can also surface anomalies, such as a user suddenly accessing a large volume of confidential data. These insights are invaluable for both governance and incident response. You gain full context around sensitive data—not just its content and classification, but also who owns it, who is using it, and how it’s being accessed. If insider threats or compromised accounts are a concern, this level of visibility helps quickly identify and respond to suspicious behavior.

Notably, Rubrik provides this user-data mapping without requiring any additional agents or monitoring tools—it leverages existing audit logs and its own data index​. For governance, this helps enforce principles of least privilege, as you can identify cases where users have access to data they shouldn’t, and then adjust permissions accordingly.

Another area where Rubrik shines is in streamlining audit and incident response workflows. Because Rubrik keeps an indexed record of sensitive data across time (thanks to its analysis of backup snapshots), it effectively maintains a historical ledger of where sensitive data was and how it was labeled or exposed at any point. In the event of an incident—a ransomware attack, say, or a data breach—one of the first questions is “What data was affected and was any of it sensitive or regulated?” 

With Rubrik, you can answer that quickly. The system can show if any files compromised during an attack contained sensitive data and, if so, of what type​. For example, if malware encrypted a user’s OneDrive, Rubrik could identify which of those files had personal data vs. which were harmless. This greatly aids incident response by focusing remediation and notification efforts on the truly critical data. 

In fact, Rubrik’s platform allows you to simulate this scenario: you can pick a set of files (or an entire OneDrive or mailbox) and see the sensitive data classification of that content, essentially performing an “impact assessment” of a breach in minutes. One Rubrik webinar demonstrated how you could determine if files exfiltrated or encrypted in an attack contained PII, PCI, or HIPAA data, and then perform targeted recovery of just those files​. This capability means when the worst happens, you have the tools to respond surgically: you know exactly what risk is posed by the incident and can invoke the appropriate recovery or breach response plans (like notifying regulators if, say, GDPR data was involved). 

Traditional DSPM point solutions might alert you to sensitive data, but they don’t integrate with recovery workflows. Rubrik does. You can go from risk identification to recovery in one swoop. For example, after identifying that certain files were improperly exposed, you can use Rubrik to restore previous versions of those files (before they were shared) or to a secure location for forensics, thereby closing the loop between detection and remediation.

From a governance perspective, having this level of insight and control builds confidence among stakeholders (including regulators, auditors, and executives) that the organization understands its data risk and is actively managing it. Rubrik’s reporting capabilities support regular compliance audits by detailing sensitive data findings, remediation actions taken, and trends over time. Need to show how many files containing customer data were identified and properly labeled this quarter? Rubrik can produce that report. Need to demonstrate that no sensitive data is left in open-share folders? A report can highlight any outstanding exposures. These insights not only help avoid compliance fines but also guide better decision-making. For instance, you might identify a certain department that generates an unusually high amount of sensitive data and decide to invest in additional training or controls for that team. 

In summary, Rubrik transforms what is often a black box of data into a transparent, governable repository. By detecting exposure risks, providing rich contextual analytics, and linking directly to audit/response workflows, Rubrik equips organizations with the actionable intelligence needed to govern data responsibly and respond to incidents efficiently. It’s a virtuous cycle: better visibility leads to better governance, which leads to reduced risk over time.

5. Future-Ready: Secure Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption

Organizations that look to adopt cutting-edge AI tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot must ensure that those tools don’t inadvertently expose sensitive data. Copilot is a powerful generative AI assistant that can surface information from across your Microsoft 365 content to help users be more productive. But without proper data controls, Copilot could potentially reveal confidential data (for example, by summarizing an email that includes hidden sensitive details) to users who shouldn’t see it. Rubrik’s solution is future-ready in that it directly addresses this challenge, enabling broader Copilot adoption while maintaining InfoSec’s trust and control. 

Rubrik has introduced specific DSPM capabilities for Microsoft 365 Copilot to mitigate the risk of sensitive data exposure in AI-driven workflows​. In essence, Rubrik acts as a safety net and enforcer for Copilot: it makes sure that the data Copilot has access to is properly secured, labeled, and permissioned so that Copilot won’t leak what it shouldn’t. According to Microsoft, Copilot respects existing Microsoft 365 data access controls, which is good—but if those controls (permissions or labels) are misconfigured, Copilot would blindly follow whatever is there​. 

This is where Rubrik comes in. Rubrik DSPM provides the visibility and control to ensure sensitive data is correctly classified, labeled, and segmented with the right access permissions before Copilot ever touches it. By proactively identifying files that Copilot could access and that have lax permissions or missing sensitivity labels, Rubrik enables you to fix those issues in advance.

For example, Rubrik can scan your SharePoint and OneDrive for any document that is broadly accessible (say to “All Employees”) that contains secrets or confidential data. It will flag these and guide you to remediate (adjust permissions or apply a stricter sensitivity label) so that when Copilot is rolled out, it doesn’t accidentally surface that document to unauthorized users. In this way, Rubrik prepares your Microsoft 365 environment for safe Copilot deployment​. This preparation includes:

• Identifying high-risk access permissions: The system locks down any sensitive files open to too many people

• Ensuring accurate data labeling: The system fills any gaps where sensitive data wasn’t labeled, so that Copilot’s access policies have the correct information to operate on

Together, these steps significantly reduce the chance of an AI mishap where Copilot might show something it shouldn’t. It builds InfoSec confidence that “we know what Copilot will see, and we’ve put guardrails around it.” In fact, Microsoft itself has endorsed this approach, with a Microsoft CTO noting that Rubrik’s DSPM for Copilot “provides robust data visibility and control, enabling organizations to confidently leverage AI-driven capabilities while ensuring their sensitive data remains secure.”​ 

By making Copilot adoption safer, Rubrik allows the business to accelerate productivity gains from AI without waiting on perfect data conditions. Often, security teams are the ones tapping the brakes on new tools like Copilot due to data exposure fears. Rubrik helps remove those roadblocks. InfoSec teams gain trust that even as employees start using Copilot to comb through documents and emails, the sensitive content is still protected. This encourages broader and faster rollout of Copilot, since compliance requirements can be met in parallel. 

Furthermore, Rubrik’s integration with AI-era workflows is an example of being ready for whatever comes next. The platform’s AI-driven risk analysis (like identifying anomalous access or predicting where sensitive data might concentrate) will complement tools like Copilot. And if Microsoft (or other vendors) release new AI features that touch enterprise data, Rubrik’s framework of classification, labeling, and least-privilege enforcement will be an essential overlay to maintain security. In essence, Rubrik is aligning data management with the emerging AI shared responsibility model in which an organization must ensure that its data that’s fed into AI is governed and protected​.

Rubrik couples DSPM with backup and recovery, so even if an AI or user does something unintended with data, you have an immutable backup to fall back on. For instance, if a flawed Copilot action resulted in mass deletion or corruption of labeled data, Rubrik could quickly restore that data. This is part of maintaining that total resilience posture. 

Rubrik’s Chief Business Officer, Mike Tornincasa, summarized it well when he said that having DSPM within Rubrik’s comprehensive cyber resilience platform reduces complexity and helps accelerate AI adoption, while securing data wherever it lives. In practice, this means you don’t need separate strategies for “AI data” vs. “regular data.” One unified Rubrik strategy covers both, applying consistent security and compliance to all data, regardless of how new technologies like Copilot are using it. Thus, as your organization embraces Copilot and future AI innovations, Rubrik ensures you remain secure and compliant by design, turning what could be a security headache into a business advantage.

A Unified Cyber Resilience Advantage

Rubrik’s approach to Microsoft 365 data protection goes far beyond what point DSPM solutions or native tools alone can offer. By unifying backup, data discovery, classification, labeling, and access control in a single Zero Trust platform, Rubrik delivers a total cyber resilience posture for your Microsoft 365 environment. This holistic strategy means you are not only identifying risks but also mitigating them and preparing for worst-case scenarios under one roof. Compared to piecemeal solutions, Rubrik provides faster deployment, less operational burden, and a broader scope of protection – covering everything from compliance reporting to rapid ransomware recovery. 

The business value is clear: reduced risk of data breaches and compliance violations, lower licensing and operational costs, and increased confidence to adopt new technologies like Copilot that can drive productivity. Technical teams appreciate deep capabilities like continuous sensitive data scanning and one-click remediation, while business leaders appreciate that these capabilities translate to tangible risk reduction and agility.

Perhaps most importantly, Rubrik’s integrated posture assures that security and compliance are not bolt-on afterthoughts, but are inherently built into your data management workflows. As Mike Tornincasa of Rubrik noted, this approach “Helps safeguard business-critical assets, allowing organizations to leverage the power of innovative tools like Copilot while maintaining a strong data security posture and ensuring cyber recovery—all within a comprehensive cyber resilience platform.”​ 

In other words, Rubrik enables you to have your cake and eat it too: you can unleash the productivity of Microsoft 365 (and even AI assistants) across the enterprise, and sleep at night knowing your sensitive data is under control and recoverable.

For CISOs and compliance officers, choosing Rubrik means choosing a partner in resilience. It’s a solution that not only finds where your risks are, but also helps you eliminate them and bounce back from any incident. Instead of juggling separate compliance scanners, DLP systems, and backup products—Rubrik consolidates these into a single source of truth for your data risk and protection. 

The end result is a more efficient IT operation, demonstrable compliance and security improvements, and a business that can move faster with confidence. In the modern threat landscape and regulatory environment, that comprehensive peace of mind is a compelling narrative on its own—and it’s exactly what Rubrik delivers for Microsoft 365 data management.