Governing data is critical to adhere to compliance regulations. In a world where government employees work and provide public services remotely, information is stored across numerous devices in multiple disparate locations from on-premises to the cloud. This situation makes it challenging to secure and govern data and to comply with regulations.
Today we are excited to announce the general availability of Microsoft 365 Information Governance and Records Management for the Government Community Cloud (GCC), GCC High, and Department of Defense (DoD) customers. These capabilities provide government organizations with significantly greater depth in governing critical data.
Information Governance
Microsoft Information Governance helps government organizations manage risk by discovering, classifying, labeling, and deleting their data. It allows organizations and agencies to reduce risk by providing lifecycle management across their Microsoft 365 data.
Records Management
Records Management provides government organizations with the ability to manage content to meet regulatory requirements. With Records Management, government organizations can:
- Classify, retain, and manage content according to your retention schedule without compromising end-user productivity.
- Defensibly dispose of files, including review and approval.
- Demonstrate compliance with regulations through defensible audit trails and proof of destruction.
Records Management is accessible in the Microsoft 365 Compliance Center.
- Strike the right balance between governance and productivity: Records Management is built into Microsoft 365 collaboration and productivity tools, easing the friction between enforcing governance controls and user productivity. Users can work as they would typically, and records management happens in the background without the user being aware of it. You can accomplish this by using automatic retention policies based on the content, its metadata, the file location, or the presence of sensitive data. These different auto-classification methods provide the flexibility you need to manage the increasing volume of data. With Records Management, you can balance rigorous enforcement of data controls with helping your organization to be fully productive. Learn more about auto-applying retention.
- Build trust, transparency, and defensibility: Building trust and providing transparency is crucial to managing records. Microsoft Records Management includes disposition approval and proof of disposal for all items deleted via a record label. Proof of disposal helps provide the defensibility you need to meet legal and regulatory requirements. Learn more about content disposal.
- Help ensure immutability of files: Confidentiality, integrity, and availability of records are vital principles that must guide companies as they govern business-critical information. Highly regulated government agencies and contractors need the most stringent controls to ensure records integrity. Regulatory record labels further enhance immutability by preventing metadata changes, records movements, records versioning, and blocking users and admins from removing the label once applied. Learn more about regulatory record labels.
Get started today
We hope you are excited to try these new features of Microsoft Information Governance and Records Management. You can learn more about all these updates in our technical documentation.
- Get started with retention policies and retention labels: Microsoft Information Governance in Microsoft 365 - Microsoft 365 Compliance | Microsoft Docs
- Get started with records management: Get started with records management in Microsoft 365 - Microsoft 365 Compliance | Microsoft Docs
APPENDIX:
As the advanced compliance specialist for Microsoft 365 compliance solutions, you can connect with me here. Check out other Microsoft 365 compliance resources for US government.
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Evaluate your CMMC postures with Compliance Manager in GCC, GCC High |
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Microsoft CMMC Acceleration Program Update – January 2021 |
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Using Advanced Audit for your forensic investigation capability |
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Advanced eDiscovery demo for Gov cloud (video) |
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Enhanced regulatory, legal and forensic investigation capabilities now in the Government Cloud |
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Microsoft 365 Public Roadmap link to check status on upcoming Microsoft 365 compliance solution features |
Microsoft 365 Roadmap: Microsoft 365 compliance solutions |