Bringing Thousands of SharePoint Sites Under Governance for an Energy and Resources Sector Organisation

The Challenge

A large organisation in the energy and resources sector was experiencing rapid Microsoft SharePoint growth, with thousands of SharePoint sites already in place and dozens of new sites being created each month. As site numbers increased, SharePoint storage consumption was growing rapidly, creating budget pressure and making it difficult to understand what data existed, who owned it, who had access, and whether each site was still required.

The organisation had limited visibility across its SharePoint environment. There was no clear central view of which sites existed, who owned them, when they were created, whether they were still active, how much storage each consumed, which internal or external users had access, and whether that access remained appropriate. Site creation had become difficult to control, with limited lifecycle management and no consistent user access review process.

This created several risks. From a cost perspective, storage was growing quickly and pushing the organisation over budget. From a security perspective, there was uncertainty around whether sensitive business or operational data was exposed to external users, public links, or unauthorised groups. From a governance perspective, the organisation needed accountability, ownership clarity, and a structured process to determine which sites should be retained, archived, or removed.

The Approach

• Performed a detailed SharePoint discovery and user access review using PowerShell automation and Microsoft 365 administration capabilities.
• Collected key metrics across the SharePoint environment including site creation dates, owners, storage usage, activity levels, dormant sites, internal users, external users, public access exposure, group access, and permission structures.
• Categorised sites based on business value, risk, usage, ownership, and cost impact, providing a centralised view of the estate.
• Identified inactive and dormant SharePoint sites so business owners could confirm whether they were still required.
• Reviewed large sites consuming significant storage and mapped where storage growth was occurring.
• Identified sites with external users or broader access permissions so the business could validate whether that access was still appropriate.
• Mapped site ownership so accountability could be assigned back to the correct business areas.
• Defined a process for contacting site owners to confirm site usage, access requirements, retention needs, and whether sites should remain active.
• Recommended archiving into lower-cost cold storage for sites no longer required for day-to-day operations but needing retention for compliance.
• Provided guidance on improving future SharePoint governance, including clearer change controls for new site creation, regular user access reviews, site lifecycle management, ownership accountability, and storage cost monitoring.