How to Prepare Your Content for M365 Copilot with Orchestry

We’ve all been there, your Microsoft 365 tenant is full of Teams, SharePoint sites, and Viva Engage communities that no one’s touched in months (or years). They’re taking up space, cluttering navigation, and making it harder for people to find what they actually need. 

This is where Orchestry’s Archival Policies come in. 

Think of them as your Marie Kondo for Microsoft 365: they help you review, clean up, and organize your workspaces so your environment stays lean, secure, and easy to manage. And in today’s AI-driven workplace, that’s more important than ever, because a cluttered tenant isn’t just messy; it can confuse tools like Microsoft Copilot and limit the value you get from AI. 

Let’s talk about how Orchestry archiving works, why it matters, and how it sets you up for Copilot success. 

Why Archiving Matters for Copilot Readiness

Microsoft Copilot can do incredible things, summarize documents, surface insights, automate tasks, but only if it has clean, well-structured content to work with.

Here’s the reality:

• Old, unused workspaces clutter search and indexing, making Copilot’s results noisier. 
• Orphaned Teams or sites (with no owners) can expose sensitive content to the wrong people. 
• Outdated content piles up, creating “ROT” (redundant, obsolete, trivial) data that distracts Copilot from the good stuff. 
• Stale workspaces eat into your storage quotas, which can drive up costs as your Microsoft 365 environment grows. 

By archiving properly, you reduce clutter, tighten governance, lower storage costs, and make it easier for Copilot to surface the right content for the right people. In other words, archiving isn’t just cleanup, it’s a strategic step toward AI readiness and cost sufficiency. And those cost savings? They can be reinvested in your Copilot journey, making it a more affordable organization project. Win/win! 

What Are Archival Policies?

Archival policies in Orchestry are rules you set up to manage the end-of-life stage of a workspace, whether it’s no longer needed, abandoned, or simply inactive.

With these policies, you can:

• Free up storage by deleting or trimming version history from archived workspaces. 
• Close forgotten or ownerless workspaces (no more digital orphans). 
• Automate the review and closure process so you don’t have to manually chase workspace owners.

And the best part? Archival policies work on both newly provisioned templates and existing workspaces, so nothing gets left behind. 

Where Can You Use Archival Policies?

Here’s a quick look at what’s supported:

How Orchestry Knows When to Archive

Orchestry assigns lifecycle statuses to each workspace based on activity. These statuses drive your archival workflows.

• Active: Under the inactivity threshold. 
• Inactive: Over the inactivity threshold but not yet processed by a policy. 
• Pending Approval: Awaiting owner or admin approval before archival actions take place. 
• Renewed: Workspaces that have been renewed (and live to fight another day!). 
• Archived (via Orchestry or M365): Workspaces that have been archived based on the chosen method. 

💡Pro tip: Add an approval step to your archival process. Workspace owners get a task in Orchestry before anything happens, giving them a chance to review, renew, or gracefully let go. 

Archival Methods: How Do You Want to Archive?

When creating archival policies, Orchestry gives you four methods to choose from:

1. Archive In Place 

• Keeps the workspace where it is but changes its state.
• Adds Orchestry-specific enhancements like adjusting ownership/membership, making the site read-only, removing it from search, and associating it with a Hub Site. 

2. Move to SharePoint Archive

• Moves content to an existing SharePoint site of your choice. 
• Deletes the original Team, Group, and Site (and removes them from Entra).

3. Microsoft’s M365 Archive (via Orchestry)

• Leverages Microsoft’s own archival process, but from within Orchestry’s interface. 
• Moves workspaces into Microsoft’s cold storage layer (subscription required).

4. Delete

• Permanently deletes the workspace without archiving.

Getting Started: Your Archiving Roadmap

Before you start archiving, take time to plan your strategy: 

1. Start with your oldest inactive workspaces. These are the low-hanging fruit for cleanup. 
2. Create your archival policies. Each policy is tied to one type of workspace (Teams, SharePoint, etc.). 
3. Assign policies to templates. That way, new workspaces are set up for success from day one. 
4. Apply policies to existing workspaces. Bring legacy sites in line with your governance approach. 

The Big Picture

Archiving isn’t just about freeing up storage or tidying up Entra. It’s about governance and AI readiness. 

Whether you need the enhanced flexibility of Archive in Place, the seamless integration of Microsoft’s M365 Archive, or the deep clean of moving content to SharePoint, Orchestry gives you the tools to manage your Microsoft 365 environment with confidence. 

And here’s the bonus: when your tenant is decluttered and well-governed, Microsoft Copilot becomes exponentially more powerful. It can surface what you actually need, instead of wading through ROT data or outdated sites. 

So, ask yourself: does your Microsoft 365 tenant spark joy (and productivity)? If not, it might be time to let Orchestry help you tidy up. Download our features sheet to learn more.