Teams Cleans Data Seams – 

In data retention, a delicate balance must be kept. On the one hand is the need to delete older data to proactively mitigate damaging security breaches or litigation. Additionally, it’s important to clear data clutter for users, to help ensure they have only the information they need. On the other hand are pressures to keep data. These can range from internal policies to industry regulations like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. 

An important tool to help manage that balance was recently added to Teams, Microsoft’s collaboration and communications platform. Found in the Office 365 security and compliance center, it’s now possible to set retention policies for Teams. 

According to Microsoft’s announcement, the policies can be customized to apply toward your entire organization or only to specific locations, teams, or even users, a degree of granularity sorely needed. Happily, separately modifiable data retention policies for Teams chat and channel messages are also available.

As is everything related to Teams, more features are still in the pipeline. Data Loss Prevention (DLP), for example, is mentioned as a future addition in Microsoft’s retention policy announcement but does not yet show up on the Office 365 Roadmap. Just this week, a new Teams and Skype for Business Admin Center was also released. It is perhaps a testament to the amount of work required to build a huge service like Teams that it’s only now, a full year after launch, that vital compliance and management features like the above being added.

For further details, Microsoft’s announcement can be found here. 

And if you want to keep up with industry news and get hybrid tips, follow Cayosoft on Facebook, Twitter (@Cayosoft) and LinkedIn.