Microsoft Purview Cheat Sheet

• Unified data governance platform that enables organizations to manage data across on-premises, multi-cloud, and SaaS environments.
• It facilitates the discovery, classification, cataloging, and governance of the enterprise.
• Integrates with Azure, Microsoft 365, Power BI, and other platforms.

Core Capabilities

• Data Discovery & Classification
  • Automatically scans and classifies data using built-in and custom classifiers.
  • Supports sensitive data types like PII, financial records, and health information.
• Data Catalog
  • Centralized metadata repository.
  • Enables search and exploration of data assets with lineage and glossary support.
• Data Map
  • Automatically builds a map of data assets across hybrid environments.
  • Continuously updates via scanning and ingestion.
• Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (Preview)
  • A new solution that unifies and enhances previous DSPM versions.
  • Provides outcome-based guided workflows, AI observability for agents, and posture reports.
  • Directly integrates with Data Security Investigations.
• Data Lineage
  • Visualizes end-to-end data movement and transformation.
  • Tracks data flow across services like Azure Data Factory, Synapse, Power BI.

• Glossary
  • Business-friendly terms linked to technical metadata.
  • Promotes consistent understanding across teams.

Governance & Compliance

• Access Control
  • Role-based access (RBAC) for managing who can view, edit, or manage assets.
  • Integration with Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD).
• Policy Management
  • Define and enforce data access policies across services.
  • Supports column-level security and data masking.
• Insights & Reporting
  • Dashboards for data classification, scan status, and policy compliance.
  • Helps identify governance gaps and data risks.

Azure Service Integrations

Key Tools & Interfaces

• Microsoft Purview Portal (New Unified Portal)
  The primary, modern web-based interface for accessing all Microsoft Purview solutions (data governance, security, risk & compliance) from a single entry point. It replaces and consolidates the older Purview Studio (governance portal) and Microsoft Purview compliance portal. Key features include:

  • Global Search: Search for navigation, users, and resources across all Purview solutions from the top bar.

  • Solution Cards & Pages: A homepage with cards to quickly launch solutions like Unified Catalog, Data Loss Prevention, Insider Risk Management, etc.

  • Centralized Settings: Manage both portal-wide and individual solution settings from a single location.

  • Free Version: New customers without a Purview account can start with a free version offering a core subset of governance features (Catalog browse/search, Data Map history) for Azure Blob, Azure SQL DB, Fabric, and other key sources via live view.

Setup & Best Practices

• Start with Data Map creation and connect sources.
• Use scans to populate the catalog and classify data.
• Define glossary terms early to align business and technical teams.
• Monitor lineage to understand data dependencies.
• Apply RBAC and policies to secure sensitive data.

Pricing

• Per-User Licensing
  • Applies to Microsoft 365 and Windows/macOS endpoints.
  • Included in Microsoft 365 E5/A5/F5/G5 licenses.
• Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG)
  • Azure-based consumption model.
  • Required for non-Microsoft 365 sources and advanced governance/security features.
  • Charges accrue based on the usage of specific features and data volumes.

Data Governance

• Unified Catalog
  • Billed per governed asset per day.
  • Governed assets = assets linked to governance concepts (e.g., data products).
• Data Health Management
  • Billed via Data Governance Processing Units (DGPU).
  • DGPU = 60 minutes of compute time.
  • Performance tiers: Basic, Standard, Advanced.

Data Security

• At-Rest Protection: Per asset/day.
• In-Transit Protection: $0.50 per 10K requests.
• Insider Risk Management: $25 per 10K events.
• Data Security Investigations: $5/GB stored + SCU usage.
• On-Demand Classification: $20 per 10K assets.

Key Concepts

• DGPU (Data Governance Processing Unit): Used for data quality and health jobs.
• Data Security Investigation Compute Unit: Replaces Security Compute Units (SCUs) as the dedicated AI processing billing unit for the Data Security Investigations solution. SCUs are no longer used for this purpose.
  (Note: The term SCU or Security Compute Unit may still be used for other Purview or Microsoft Security services, like Microsoft Security Copilot. For Purview’s Data Security Investigations, the new unit applies.)
• Governed Asset: A technical asset (e.g., table, file) linked to a governance concept.
• Text Record: Up to 1,000 characters; used in AI compliance billing.

Microsoft Purview Cheat Sheet Resources:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/purview
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/purview/
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/cognitive-services/content-safety/
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/developer/data-security-concepts