Introducing M365 Archive Integration with Orchestry

Microsoft 365 storage is becoming a silent killer of IT budgets.

Organizations are drowning in data with ballooning SharePoint libraries, Teams files that haven't been touched in years, and sites no one remembers creating. The result? A mounting pile of SharePoint content and costs with no scalable way to deal with it.

At Orchestry, we’ve heard this story again and again: Admins trying to shave down storage usage by deleting files (cue the compliance team’s panic), purging version histories (users hate it), or running manual PowerShell scripts (a time sink). And even with all that effort, they’re still getting hit with thousands of dollars in storage fees every month. Money that could be invested in impactful projects like Copilot.

Storage Isn’t Infinite and Governance Isn’t Free

Microsoft does offer pooled storage across SharePoint and OneDrive, but once you hit your limit, you're looking at roughly $0.20/GB/month in overage charges. That can escalate fast especially for larger tenants or those heavily using SharePoint for content. A single additional Terabyte of SharePoint storage will cost you roughly ~$2,400 annually. 

And deleting content isn't always an option. Between compliance obligations and end-user resistance, most organizations end up stuck between overspending and losing access to critical historical records.

We’ve always had a deep set of archival capabilities in Orchestry, including options to delete, archive in place or move content to another location. Now, we’ve added an integration with the Microsoft 365 Archive suite to further help you cut down on storage costs and help you manage it smarter.

What Is Orchestry’s M365 Archive Integration?

It’s a new capability within Orchestry that enables policy-based, cost-optimized archival of SharePoint content to the M365 Archive. It gives IT teams a way to:

• Gain visibility: Identify stale, unused, or oversized content
• Save money: Move that content to Microsoft’s native cold storage tier  
• Stay secure: Maintain full compliance and audit visibility 
• Enable end users: Involve Team and Site Owners in the archival process 
• Win the storage battle: Perform a series of actions before content is sent to the M365 Archive for additional savings and security hardening

Think of it as lifecycle governance with built-in storage savings.

Why Does This Matter?

Because SharePoint wasn't designed for infinite scale.

The more we talk to enterprise IT leaders, the more we hear: “We’re constantly pushing the storage limits, and we’re out of tricks.” Even after purging versions and blocking large file types, many Orchestry customers are right at (or still over) quota.

Nearly 20% of our customers currently pay Microsoft for additional storage, and Gartner reports that nearly 70% of IT leaders now view storage growth as a critical risk to their M365 adoption plans.

Microsoft provides retention policies and record management tools, but no first- or third-party solution allows scoped, intelligent archival across tenants with real-time visibility.

Until now.

How does the Microsoft 365 Archive Integration Work?

At its core, M365 Archive Integration lets you apply archival policies at scale. You can:

• Detect inactivity using file access and modification timestamps at the site level 
• Prompt owners to review and approve archival 
• Perform additional actions such as removing permissions, removing previous versions or changing the name of the workspace for additional governance 
• Move content to Microsoft’s archive tier for long-term storage so that if you go over your storage quota, you are paying only 25% of the storage

Once archived, content is clearly tagged in Orchestry’s reports, dashboards, and filters so IT teams can always distinguish between “cold” and “active” content across their environment.

It’s a governance-first, compliance-friendly approach and yes, it can reduce long-term storage costs by up to 75%.

A New Era of Storage Governance

Traditional approaches to managing storage in Microsoft 365 often rely on brute force: delete, block, restrict. But this just shifts the burden — and creates risk in the process.

Orchestry’s M365 Archive instead brings structure and visibility to the chaos of storage sprawl. Here’s how:

1. Storage Optimization without Deletion

You don’t need to erase history to save money. Archived content stays searchable and compliant, just at a lower cost tier.

2. Transparency at Every Level

With Orchestry’s archive-aware reporting, admins can see what’s been archived, when, and why across every site, team, or workspace. 

3. Owner-Inclusive Workflows

Team and site owners can be engaged in the archival process, helping avoid surprises and ensuring critical files don’t vanish without a trace.

4. Governance on Autopilot

Apply consistent archival policies across workspaces. Reduce human error, avoid ad hoc cleanups, and bring predictability to your storage lifecycle.

Who Benefits?

This feature wasn’t just built for storage admins (though they love it). M365 Archive is built for:

• IT Administrators who need storage relief now. 
• Governance Officers who need defensible, transparent processes. 
• Compliance Teams who can’t afford to risk losing important data 
• Team & Site Owners who want clarity and control

In short, everyone who’s been stuck in the cycle of “keep everything or delete everything” now has a third option. 

Final Thoughts: Don’t Let Storage Stall Your Copilot Strategy

Here’s the kicker: with the rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft’s focus on data-driven AI, your storage problems aren’t just about cost anymore — they’re about risk and readiness.

Bloated, ungoverned workspaces drag down Copilot performance. They increase security risk. And they make it harder to find, classify, and trust the data Copilot depends on.

Orchestry’s M365 Archive Integration is more than a cost-saving feature it’s a foundational layer for secure, AI-ready Microsoft 365 governance.