In today’s digital-first environment, organizations face growing pressure to protect sensitive data and meet strict regulatory requirements. Whether you're dealing with healthcare data under HIPAA, customer data under GDPR, or financial records under SOX, having the right tools to manage security and compliance is essential.
Microsoft 365 addresses these challenges with two powerful platforms: the Microsoft 365 Security Center and the Microsoft 365 Compliance Center. Together, they provide IT administrators and compliance officers with comprehensive oversight of security posture and regulatory alignment—while also integrating seamlessly with productivity tools like SharePoint and Microsoft Teams.
Understanding Microsoft 365 Security Center
The Microsoft 365 Security Center is the central console for threat management and security operations across the Microsoft 365 environment. It provides actionable insights, dashboards, and alerts that allow administrators to protect identities, endpoints, and information.
Key Features
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Microsoft Secure Score
Offers a quantitative measure of your current security posture, with recommendations tailored to your environment. -
Threat Protection
Includes tools like Microsoft Defender for Office 365, which helps detect phishing, malware, and other attacks. -
Alerts and Incident Management
Surfaces real-time alerts with context, severity levels, and suggested response actions. -
Identity and Access Control
Enables conditional access policies, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and role-based access to ensure that only the right people have access to sensitive resources.
For organizations looking to centralize their threat mitigation strategies, the Security Center integrates with Microsoft Sentinel for extended cloud-native SIEM capabilities. It also aligns well with governance strategies for SharePoint Online—where document access and collaboration controls are crucial.
Learn more in Microsoft’s official documentation.
Exploring Microsoft 365 Compliance Center
The Microsoft 365 Compliance Center is designed to help organizations meet internal and external compliance obligations through automation, reporting, and risk management tools.
Key Features
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Compliance Manager
Provides scores, assessments, and improvement actions aligned with more than 300 regulatory standards like GDPR, HIPAA, and ISO 27001. -
Information Protection
Allows classification, labeling, and encryption of data based on sensitivity. -
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Monitors and restricts the sharing of sensitive data such as credit card numbers or medical records. -
Audit, eDiscovery, and Insider Risk Management
Supports legal investigations and internal monitoring to ensure compliance with employment and operational standards. -
Records Management
Define retention schedules, automatic deletion, or archival workflows for content stored in Exchange, OneDrive, and SharePoint.
To fully harness its power, organizations should align the Compliance Center’s capabilities with their SharePoint-based content management systems. Learn more about optimizing government records in SharePoint.
Why Integration Matters
Although Microsoft offers two distinct centers, a truly effective compliance and security strategy blends their strengths:
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Use alerts from the Security Center to trigger retention holds or audit actions in the Compliance Center.
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Monitor policy violations via DLP and investigate them using insider risk tools.
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Improve your Secure Score while simultaneously tracking Compliance Score improvements, ensuring a dual lens on both proactive defense and reactive risk mitigation.
By managing both security and compliance under one roof, organizations can reduce silos, respond faster to threats, and achieve higher transparency—especially during audits.
Infowise Ultimate Forms: A SharePoint-First Compliance Enabler
While Microsoft 365 provides enterprise-grade protection, organizations often need more customized data input and workflow automation—especially when using SharePoint Online.
That’s where Infowise Ultimate Forms comes in.
How Ultimate Forms Enhances Microsoft 365:
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Build No-Code Business Solutions
Create logic-based forms, validations, and conditional interfaces tailored to HR, IT, finance, or legal workflows. -
Automate Sensitive Data Processes
Automatically trigger alerts, approvals, or restrictions when users submit forms containing personally identifiable information (PII) or health records. -
Audit and Track Interactions
Each submission and update is logged, timestamped, and permission-controlled—ready for audit trails. -
Integrate with Compliance Policies
Use field rules and calculated fields to enforce internal policy logic that aligns with Microsoft 365 compliance labels and DLP strategies.
Need to build a secure public-facing form? Check out our post on secure external form submissions in SharePoint.
Real-World Use Cases
🏥 Healthcare Providers
Integrate SharePoint and Infowise to collect and protect electronic protected health information (ePHI). Pair with Microsoft Compliance Center to monitor HIPAA alignment and automate documentation workflows. Learn more in Is SharePoint HIPAA Compliant?
🏛️ Government Agencies
Use DLP and Records Management to control sensitive government data. Extend SharePoint with Infowise to manage FOIA requests, emergency plans, or legislative workflows.
💼 Corporate HR and Legal Teams
Automate onboarding, incident reporting, and policy acknowledgment forms with Infowise. Link audit data to Microsoft 365 eDiscovery tools for litigation readiness.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
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Ignoring Policy Customization
Out-of-the-box settings rarely meet all organizational needs. Always customize policies to reflect your actual risk profile. -
Incomplete Retention Configuration
Failing to configure retention properly can result in data over-retention (risk) or premature deletion (non-compliance). -
No User Awareness Training
Even the best tech can’t replace educated users. Combine technical enforcement with awareness programs. -
Underutilizing SharePoint Forms
Don’t rely on unstructured email communication—replace it with structured forms and automation to enhance accountability and tracking.
Best Practices for Microsoft 365 Security & Compliance
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✅ Set Up Role-Based Access in SharePoint to enforce least-privilege principles.
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✅ Enable MFA Across All Accounts for stronger identity protection.
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✅ Run Regular Secure Score Reviews to adapt to evolving threats.
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✅ Align Labels and Policies in Microsoft Purview with your internal classification scheme.
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✅ Automate Approval Trails with Infowise to reduce compliance friction.
For organizations that want to transform their Microsoft 365 and SharePoint environments into secure, compliant powerhouses—request a demo or explore our live webinars.
Final Thoughts
Managing security and compliance is not optional—it's a mission-critical responsibility. Microsoft 365 Security and Compliance Centers give you a powerful, cloud-native command center to monitor, protect, and govern your digital estate. But the value multiplies when paired with tools like Infowise Ultimate Forms, which provide the flexibility and customization SharePoint-based organizations need.
Together, they offer a streamlined, scalable way to align your data strategy with your compliance framework—without slowing down operations.
