Where governance is concerned, too much restriction can paradoxically weaken security. We look at how and why this happens, and how Microsoft 365 enables you to achieve a balanced, consistent and universal approach to governance and security.
IT Leaders Already Know This
If you’re responsible for IT, you already know that data security and compliance aren’t optional. Indeed, if anything keeps you awake at night, it’s probably the persistent fear of a security attack, data breach, or compliance failure.
Either explicitly, or implicitly, you’re held accountable for:
- Protecting sensitive data across a sprawling tech stack
- Adhering to industry standards and legal requirements
- Preventing data loss and unauthorised access.
Often, what started off as a reasonable and thorough approach to security and compliance is eroded over time. Things change. Requirements increase, systems are added, exceptions are created, and so it goes.
Your challenge isn’t one of awareness — it’s knowing how to actually do this well while keeping up with the ever-evolving needs of business.
How Fragmentation Creates Risk
When the overall technology stack is composed of multiple different platforms true governance becomes very hard to maintain. If any systems have non-IT, departmental owners, and/or apps or services are added ad hoc, governance becomes unmanageable. Permissions are inconsistent, applied manually, or overlooked entirely. Data becomes increasingly fragmented, with files dispersed across inboxes, personal storage, third-party tools, SharePoint, Teams, and unsanctioned platforms. And as a result, there’s no way of confidently enforcing lifecycle polices for retention, archive, and deletion.
Apart from causing the security and compliance risks IT leaders are rightly trying to avoid, here’s the trap, it adds to them!
Aware of these shortcomings, and trying to prevent further risks, team members become overly cautious. In trying to do the right thing, they do the wrong thing. We’ve seen:
- The application of broad restrictions that frustrate users and limit productivity
- Requests for tools like Viva Connections or Viva Engage denied over security concerns – even though they’re Microsoft-native tools.
- Inflexible policies that unintentionally cause use of unsanctioned, ungoverned solutions and workarounds.
Restrictive governance can backfire. When employees can’t access what they need, or don’t trust internal tools to deliver it, they start to work around IT, creating more risk, not less. We’ve all heard of employees emailing files to insecure personal accounts and using WhatsApp groups or personal messaging apps.
Why Microsoft 365 Can (and Should) Be the Solution
Most organisations already use elements of Microsoft 365, so there’s a strong argument for extending and maximising that use. It offers a comprehensive, integrated platform that can significantly enhance productivity, collaboration, return on investment, and, most importantly, security and governance.
Microsoft 365 is designed to balance usability with security and compliance. It provides advanced security, identity, and compliance features that can be consistently and universally applied across all tools. This includes Microsoft Defender, Information Protection, Conditional Access, and elements of Purview – to give unified governance across devices, identities, and data.
For IT, this means centralised admin controls, monitoring, and analytics. It facilitates a more balanced set of policies that can be consistently enforced. It provides improved visibility, with greater oversight, audit trails, and reporting through Microsoft Purview.
It makes it easier to support the adoption of new tools – such as Viva or Power Automate – within an already trusted ecosystem. This empowers teams to collaborate without compromising data integrity and provides flexible access controls without constraining innovation.
Microsoft 365 also enables IT to move away from less well governed other-vendor solutions and services. There’s no need for Dropbox, Box, or Google Drive when SharePoint can provide robust document management, version control, and collaboration that’s thoroughly integrated with Office. Similarly, SharePoint plus Viva can replace standalone employee communication and engagement platforms like Oak Engage, Workvivo, and Interact.
In short, it provides IT with a means of regaining control of governance while seemingly allowing the business greater freedom. And that should reduce the level of shadow IT and ad hoc workarounds.
Good governance doesn’t have to mean being a restrictive gatekeeper – not if you have a well-structured environment that enables employees to work productively and securely.
So, how do you get there?
What IT Leaders Can Do Next
Working with clients we often find that a once clear approach to governance and security has been eroded over time. Take a step back and review your current set-up. This is where the objective view of a trusted partner can be particularly insightful. They see many organisation’s environments, they understand what’s practical, and know what steps can realistically be taken. SharePoint touches many aspects of your infrastructure, data management, and governance so a SharePoint Audit can be a very useful first step.
If you’re planning a new digital workplace, you’re in a great place and can bake in security and governance from the start. But, even within an ongoing initiative there are steps that can be taken to achieve a balanced approach to security and governance. The key is having a consistent set of policies, that is applied across all tools.
Uncover Where Governance Is Falling Short
Use our Digital Workplace Audit Checklist to spot security gaps, shadow IT triggers, and policy inconsistencies across your Microsoft 365 environment.
See What Balanced Governance Actually Looks Like
Our free Art of the Possible session shows how Microsoft 365 and SharePoint can help you regain control, reduce risk, and support smarter ways of working — without locking everything down.
Additional FAQs
Could strict governance actually increase security risk? How can we avoid that?
Yes. Overly rigid governance can frustrate employees, leading them to bypass controls with shadow IT or personal workarounds. This creates fragmentation, reduces visibility, and ironically weakens security.
The way to avoid this is by designing governance that is firm but usable: set clear rules, apply them consistently, and use automation where possible. Tools like Microsoft 365 templates and policies can help apply governance “in the background” so employees don’t feel blocked.
From our experience at Silicon Reef, the organisations that succeed are those who design governance with the end-user journey in mind — it keeps people compliant without them even realising it.
How do fragmented systems undermine governance, and what can leaders do about it?
Fragmented systems are one of the biggest governance challenges. When policies are applied differently across SharePoint, Teams, email, and third-party apps, gaps appear: sensitive content may sit in unsecured places, or permissions may be inconsistent.
Leaders can tackle this by mapping where content lives, reducing overlap, and moving towards a single governance framework — ideally using a platform like Microsoft 365, which provides end-to-end controls. In practice, this means auditing your environment, setting clear ownership, and simplifying access models.
At Silicon Reef, we’ve seen how quickly risk reduces once governance becomes unified rather than piecemeal — it creates confidence for both IT and business users.
How can leaders deliver effective governance without slowing down digital transformation?
The key is to embed governance into processes rather than bolt it on. When governance relies on lengthy approvals or manual checks, delivery slows and employees look for shortcuts. Instead, leaders should design governance that feels “invisible”: automated site creation templates, self-service with built-in controls, and retention policies that apply automatically. This allows projects to move quickly without losing oversight.
In our work, we’ve seen that governance works best when IT and business leaders co-design rules that support agility while still meeting compliance needs. It’s about creating guardrails, not roadblocks — enabling transformation rather than stalling it.
Why is Microsoft 365 a strong foundation for governance?
Microsoft 365 provides a single, integrated environment for collaboration, security, and governance. Its strength lies in consistency: permissions, retention, compliance, and automation can all be managed within the same ecosystem.
This helps organisations avoid the governance pitfalls of fragmentation and over-engineering, since policies apply across Teams, SharePoint, and Outlook without needing multiple tools. Leaders should focus on using these native capabilities before layering on external solutions.
Silicon Reef’s perspective, from years of supporting digital workplace leaders, is that success with Microsoft 365 governance comes from starting simple — enabling the out-of-the-box controls first, then scaling complexity only when needed.
What are the first steps to avoid over-engineering governance?
Three practical steps stand out:
- Audit your environment — understand where policies exist and where they don’t.
- Simplify ownership — define who is responsible for what, and avoid overlapping controls.
- Automate where possible — reduce manual effort by using Microsoft 365’s policies and templates.
These actions create clarity and reduce risk without adding layers of bureaucracy. Leaders should remember that governance is a living framework, not a one-time project: keep it simple, test with employees, and evolve gradually.
At Silicon Reef, we’ve seen that the organisations who avoid the governance trap are those who take small, pragmatic steps rather than trying to design the “perfect” governance model from day one.
