Microsoft 365 Sprawl Prevention

Sprawl. Easy to create, impossible to manage.

Microsoft Teams and SharePoint make collaboration easy, and that's exactly the problem.

Teams and SharePoint sites get created faster than they can be managed. Sites multiply. What looks active often isn’t. And when users can’t find what they need, they create something new.

Why sprawl happens

Storage growth isn't intentional. It builds from patterns most teams don't see.

No guardrails at creation

Anyone can create a Microsoft Team, SharePoint site, or Group, but there's no structure for naming, ownership, or metadata. Every unstructured workspace created today is a cleanup project waiting to happen tomorrow.

Microsoft 365 Sprawl - Use Case Negative 01-min

Ownership goes undefined

Many workspaces have no clear owner, or their owner has left the organization. There's no one to make decisions about the workspace, answer questions about what it contains, or take responsibility when something goes wrong.

No cleanup process

Nothing triggers review, archival, or removal of inactive workspaces. Microsoft doesn't have a built-in workflow that moves a stale workspace through review and off the books

Governance comes too late

Policies get applied after creation, if they get applied at all. By the time IT reviews a workspace, it's already operating outside standards.

Duplication compounds

When users can't find what they need, they create something new, so sprawl feeds itself. Duplicate workspaces make the discoverability problem worse, which creates a cycle that manual cleanup alone can't break.

Orchestry customers commonly cut their inactive workspace count by more than half, reaching active workspace rates above 80%.

80 %

active workspaces

Keep environments clean and scalable with Orchestry

Orchestry puts structure in place at the moment of creation, so you're not cleaning up sprawl you never meant to create.

Governance at creation

Every workspace is built from approved templates with the right naming, ownership, and structure, and compliance policies apply from day one. Users get a guided creation experience, and IT gets workspaces that arrive already governed.

Microsoft 365 Sprawl - Use Case Positive 01-min

Built-in lifecycle management

Inactive workspaces get flagged and reviewed automatically, before they pile up. Orchestry identifies dormant sites across the entire tenant and triggers the review process without anyone having to go looking for them.

Workspace reviews

Owners get prompted to certify, archive, or transfer their sites, so cleanup decisions are made by the people with actual context, not dumped on IT. The result is a tenant that stays organized without requiring a centralized cleanup effort.

Complete visibility

See all Teams, SharePoint sites, and communities in one place. Filter by activity, ownership, or status. Filter by activity, ownership, or status to quickly identify what's active, what's orphaned, and what's overdue for a decision.

Ownership enforcement

Detect orphaned workspaces and trigger reassignment or escalation automatically. Orchestry keeps ownership gaps visible and actionable until accountability is re-established

Most organizations are managing sprawl they've already accumulated

With Orchestry, the goal isn't cleanup. It's not accumulating sprawl in the first place. Governance is built into how workspaces are created, so the environment stays organized without IT having to constantly intervene.

Get a 30-minute demo tailored to your team

No pressure. Just a focused walkthrough of what matters most to you, with time for every question.

Orchestry Platform Guide

Provisioning & Templates Overview

Guest & User Management Overview

OneDrive Management Overview

Security & Permissions Feature Sheet

Reporting & Insights Feature Sheet

FiveP Partner Case Study

Monash Health Case Study

Orchestry Recommendations

Orchestry Workspace Review