Preserving Former Employee Data

When an employee leaves an organization that uses Microsoft’s on-premises server applications, such as SharePoint and Exchange, the organization can follow its own timeline and policies for the retention and deletion of the former employee’s content. However, with Office 365, access to the services is subscription-based, and organizations might need to take a more proactive approach to best utilize such subscriptions. Organizations should ensure they have a policy for retention of content created by employees who have left the organization and that they understand how to use Office 365 retention policies and tools. These precautions will ensure the organization has preserved the necessary content and that subscription licenses can be reassigned in a timely manner to avoid paying for licenses that are no longer needed.

Blocking an Account

With Office 365, an organization creates entries for each user in Azure Active Directory and assigns a subscription license to each user. While a license is assigned to a user’s account, the user can sign in to the organization’s Office 365 tenancy and access the services associated with the license, such as SharePoint Online and Exchange Online.