Microsoft 365 Architecture Pillar Guide

A high‑level architecture guide for M365 that aligns identity, collaboration, and security with governance-first design.

🏗️ M365 Core
Microsoft 365 Architecture Governance

Why this pillar exists

Microsoft 365 is easy to enable but hard to govern at scale. The goal of this pillar is to keep identity, collaboration, and data controls aligned so security and adoption move together.

Core domains

1) Identity and access

  • Entra ID as the control plane
  • Conditional Access by risk and role
  • Privileged Identity Management (PIM)

2) Collaboration surfaces

  • Teams + SharePoint site governance
  • External sharing policies
  • Site lifecycle management

3) Data protection

  • Sensitivity labels and default policies
  • DLP aligned to business risk
  • Retention for legal and compliance

Architecture priorities

  1. Governance first: define the rules before enabling features
  2. Least privilege: reduce broad access and shared ownership
  3. Visibility: audit access and exposure continuously

Linkable assets for this pillar