Reducing Storage Costs in Microsoft 365 for Financial Institutions

The Growing Storage Challenge for Financial Organizations

Financial institutions grapple with a distinct storage predicament in Microsoft 365. The industry produces and retains vast amounts of data—ranging from transaction records and customer communications to compliance documents and regulatory filings—all of which must remain accessible for audits and long-term regulatory obligations. As a result, Microsoft 365 storage  in the financial sector tends to grow faster than in other industries, driving up costs over time. What starts as a routine operational expense can rapidly evolve into a significant financial burden.   Understanding Storage Bloat in Financial Environments Storage bloat in financial organizations typically stems from several industry-specific factors:

Regulatory Retention Requirements

Financial institutions must adhere to stringent regulatory requirements that demand long-term data retention—typically 7–10 years for most records, and indefinitely for others. This leads to a constantly growing storage footprint, as new documents are regularly added while only a small fraction can be deleted, making efficient document management essential.

Duplicate Document Proliferation

Document duplication is an inherent part of financial workflows. For example, a single loan application might be stored in several places—the original submission folder, underwriting workspace, compliance review site, and departmental archives. Each duplicate adds to storage consumption, quickly compounding costs.

Versioning Overload

Financial documents often go through numerous revisions during review and approval cycles. Without effective version control, these files can retain dozens of outdated versions, taking up more storage than the finalized document and contributing significantly to overall storage bloat.

Orphaned User Content

When staff members leave the organization, their OneDrive content and personal document libraries often remain intact, consuming storage without providing ongoing business value. This orphaned user problem is particularly acute in financial services, where employee turnover can be significant.

Audit by ProvisionPoint’s Solution to Storage Optimization

Audit by ProvisionPoint delivers the visibility and best practices needed to systematically address these storage challenges. As a native Microsoft Teams application, it allows financial institutions to understand their Microsoft 365 storage landscape directly within their daily workflow environment.

Comprehensive Storage Visibility

The first step in controlling costs is understanding exactly where your storage is being used. Audit provides detailed reports on storage consumption across your Microsoft 365 environment, allowing you to:

• Identify the SharePoint sites consuming the most storage
• Pinpoint orphaned users with excessive OneDrive utilization
• Discover Teams with disproportionate storage consumption
• Track storage growth trends over time

This visibility enables targeted optimization efforts rather than broad, disruptive initiatives that might impact business operations.

Conclusion

For financial institutions, optimizing Microsoft 365 storage goes beyond cutting costs—it’s about building a smarter, more controlled digital environment that aligns with strict compliance standards. Audit equips organizations with the insights and tools needed to strike this balance.

By adopting a strategic, data-driven approach to storage management, financial firms can lower costs while strengthening information governance. The resulting efficiencies free up resources for initiatives that drive customer value and business growth.

In an industry where budgets are tight and operational resilience is key, smart storage optimization offers a rare chance to save money without compromising performance—a true win-win for financial institutions of all sizes.