Microsoft 365 2021 Compliance Roundup

• Microsoft 365 updates enhance capabilities in document retention, data classification, insider risk management, and eDiscovery.
• Compliance features in government clouds including DoD are generally behind the commercial version.

The breadth of Microsoft 365 features available to compliance administrators continues to grow. This report covers recent updates to existing Microsoft 365 compliance capabilities. (For Microsoft’s new Privacy Management solution, see “Centralized Privacy Management for Microsoft 365” on page 3 of the Mar. 2021 Update.)

Document Retention Updates

Many business documents are subject to retention regulations, and significant consequences exist for not complying with them. To assist organizations with retention requirements, Microsoft 365 implements a broad, and growing, set of document retention capabilities. (See “The Document Retention Life Cycle in Microsoft 365.”)

Recent and expected updates include the following:

Adaptive retention policies, enable the