🏢 Monitoring and Optimizing Microsoft 365 SharePoint Sites for Efficiency and Governance

 

📌 Introduction

As organizations increasingly rely on Microsoft 365 for collaboration and content management, SharePoint Online has become a central hub for storing documents, managing projects, and enabling teamwork. However, over time, the proliferation of sites and subsites can lead to inefficiencies, storage bloat, and governance challenges. Identifying inactive or underutilized sites is essential for maintaining a healthy digital workspace.

This article outlines a practical approach to auditing SharePoint Online environments, retrieving comprehensive site data, and presenting actionable insights to leadership.

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🔍 Why Monitor SharePoint Site Activity?

1. Optimize Storage Costs: Unused sites consume valuable storage, which can lead to additional licensing costs.
2. Improve Performance: Reducing clutter enhances search performance and user experience.
3. Strengthen Governance: Identifying orphaned or outdated sites helps enforce compliance and security policies.
4. Support Decision-Making: Data-driven insights empower IT and business leaders to make informed decisions about site lifecycle management.

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🛠️ How to Retrieve Site Data

Using PowerShell and Microsoft Graph API, IT administrators can extract detailed information about:

• Site Collections and Subsites
• Last Modified Dates
• Storage Usage
• Site Owners
• Activity Metrics

A sample PowerShell script can automate this process, exporting the data into a CSV file for further analysis.

Here’s a PowerShell code snippet that retrieves comprehensive details of all SharePoint Online site collections and their subsites, including usage statistics and last modified dates. This is ideal for identifying inactive or underutilized sites:

# Connect to SharePoint Online Admin Center

Connect-SPOService -Url "https://yourtenant-admin.sharepoint.com"

# Get all site collections

$sites = Get-SPOSite -Limit All

# Prepare array to store site data

$siteData = @()

foreach ($site in $sites) {

    $siteUrl = $site.Url

    $lastModified = $site.LastContentModifiedDate

    $storageUsage = $site.StorageUsageCurrent

    $owner = $site.Owner

    # Connect to each site using PnP PowerShell

    Connect-PnPOnline -Url $siteUrl -Interactive

    # Get subsites

    $subsites = Get-PnPSubWeb -Recurse

    foreach ($subsite in $subsites) {

        $siteData += [PSCustomObject]@{

            SiteCollection = $siteUrl

            Subsite        = $subsite.Url

            Title          = $subsite.Title

            LastModified   = $subsite.LastItemModifiedDate

            StorageUsageMB = $storageUsage

            Owner          = $owner

        }

    }

    # Add root site info

    $siteData += [PSCustomObject]@{

        SiteCollection = $siteUrl

        Subsite        = $siteUrl

        Title          = $site.Title

        LastModified   = $lastModified

        StorageUsageMB = $storageUsage

        Owner          = $owner

    }

}

# Export to CSV

$siteData | Export-Csv -Path "M365_Site_Report.csv" -NoTypeInformation

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📊 Visualizing the Data

Once the data is collected, it can be transformed into a compelling report or dashboard using tools like:

• Power BI: Create interactive dashboards with filters for site activity, storage usage, and ownership.
• Excel: Use pivot tables and conditional formatting to highlight inactive or high-usage sites.

Key visuals might include:

• Bar Charts: Top 10 sites by storage usage
• Heat Maps: Sites not modified in the last 6–12 months
• Pie Charts: Distribution of active vs inactive sites

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✅ Recommendations for IT Teams

• Establish Site Lifecycle Policies: Define rules for archiving or deleting inactive sites.
• Automate Regular Audits: Schedule scripts to run monthly or quarterly.
• Engage Site Owners: Notify owners of inactivity and provide options for cleanup or archiving.
• Integrate with Governance Tools: Use Microsoft Purview or third-party tools for enhanced compliance tracking.

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📈 Conclusion

Proactive monitoring of SharePoint Online sites is not just a technical necessity—it’s a strategic imperative. By leveraging automation and visualization, IT teams can provide leadership with the insights needed to streamline operations, reduce costs, and maintain a secure and efficient digital workplace.