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Recommendation

A.1) Purview defaultretention policies OFF Day 1

Background & Context

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As part of the Microsoft 365 implementation, a Data Retention Policy must should be established in Microsoft Purview to ensure consistent information governance, compliance readiness (e.g., audit/eDiscovery), and lifecycle management of corporate data (email, files, Teams content, etc.).

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Criteria	1) Purview default OFF Day 1	2) Purview default ON Day 1	3) Replicate GWS as-is in Purview
Technical Feasibility	High – keep configuration but don’t enforce.	High – enable existing policies; minimal extra build.	Medium – change policies to “forever” for Teams/Mail; validate workload coverage and exceptions.
User Impact	Low now – no user-visible deletions triggered by retention.	Medium (delayed) – deletion risk mainly when items age beyond 10 years (Teams/Mail); not immediate for most users.	Medium – minimal deletion impact, but larger eDiscovery scope and long-lived content footprint for users.
Support Impact	Low – fewer “missing data” tickets;	Medium – requires readiness for retention questions and potential deletion/escalations (even if most impact is long-term).	Medium – fewer deletion tickets, but more support for search/eDiscovery volume, mailbox/Teams history expectations, and data minimization concerns.
Operational Complexity	Low – buys time to confirm governance and rollout plan before enforcement.	Medium – needs comms, monitoring, hold process clarity, and validation that litigation overrides work as intended.	/Medium–High – requires governance justification for “retain forever” + ongoing review (why forever, for which populations, and how to manage growth).
Cost	Low  / Low–Medium– lowest immediate effort; potential future project effort to enable. Compliance risk is continued.	/ Low–Medium – low config effort, but more change management and operational readiness work.	Medium – more design/approval effort + likely higher long-term storage/eDiscovery handling costs.

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