Introducing StructurePoint
Structurepoint is a product that intelligently classifies SharePoint content by time and business value. It offloads cold and archive data, plus excessive version history, to Azure Blob Storage while maintaining compliance, usability, and governance.
Objectives and Scope
Business Objectives
  • Achieve 60–80% reduction in paid SharePoint overage costs within 12 months through Azure Blob migration, version trimming, and site lifecycle management.
  • Transform storage from an unmanaged cost center into a governed asset, aligned with regulatory, ESG, and business requirements.
In-Scope
  • SharePoint Online sites and libraries, including project sites, collaboration areas, and permitted preservation hold libraries.
  • Azure Blob Storage (Cool and Archive tiers) as the primary offload destination, incorporating region-aware data residency design.
Out-of-Scope (for v1)
On-premises SharePoint farms and non-Microsoft repositories are excluded from v1, unless subsequently integrated into the framework in later releases.
Service Components
Structurepoint Classification Engine
Categorizes files into hot (0–30 days), cool (30–180 days), and archive (180+ days) based on access, modification patterns, and business criticality. It integrates with SharePoint Storage Metrics and usage reports to efficiently identify heavy libraries and candidate sites for optimization.
SMART / Structurepoint Offload Migration Core
Offloads file binaries to Azure Blob, leaving proxy items in SharePoint. It preserves metadata, versions, permissions, and audit information. Supports selective offloading by library, folder, metadata, size, or age, and handles incremental migration for new qualifying files.
Governance and Lifecycle Controls
Applies intelligent versioning policies that progressively reduce retained versions over time (hourly/daily/weekly) using both count-based (e.g., max 100) and time-based (e.g., 2 years) limits. Purview retention labels and policies enforce 2-, 5-, and 7-year retention schemes, enabling version trimming and automated deletion post-expiration.
Monitoring, Reporting, and Optimization
Provides dashboards for SharePoint and Blob consumption, cost trends, and policy coverage. This is enhanced by quarterly Structurepoint audits. Continuous tuning of tier placement (e.g., moving rarely accessed cool data to archive) maximizes savings.
Detailed Phased Roadmap
01
Discovery, Assessment, and Design
Weeks 1–6: Define temporal data patterns and establish the business case.
02
Governance and Controls Setup
Weeks 7–12: Implement robust governance for sustainable data cleanup and offloading.
03
Pilot Implementation
Weeks 13–18: Conduct controlled validation through a representative pilot phase.
04
Full Rollout and Automation
Weeks 19–36: Execute full rollout and automation, yielding significant cost savings.
05
Optimisation and Managed Service
Month 10 onwards: Deliver ongoing optimization and managed services for continuous improvement.
Phase 1 – Discovery, Assessment, and Design
Weeks 1–6: Building the Temporal Picture and Business Case
Data and Usage Assessment
  • Run SharePoint Storage Metrics and usage reports across the tenant to identify top-consuming sites, libraries, and content types.
  • Analyze version counts, recycle bin usage, and preservation hold libraries to quantify "hidden" storage, such as old versions and deleted items.
Temporal Classification Model
  • Define hot/cool/archive thresholds aligned with the client's operational reality (default: 0–30, 30–180, 180+ days).
  • Map these temporal categories against regulatory and contractual retention obligations (e.g., 7-year finance, 5-year projects, 2-year general collaboration).
Business Case and Target Architecture
  • Model baseline costs (SharePoint extra storage at around £0.22 per GB per month) against Blob Cool and Archive (approximately £0.011 and £0.001 per GB per month).
  • Define target tiers per category (e.g., cool → Blob Cool, archive → Blob Archive) and quantify potential savings (e.g., ~£62k per year from migration plus ~£16.5k from version trimming at RES scale).

Key Deliverables: Assessment report with temporal heat map of data, plus a target architecture diagram showing SharePoint → SMART Offload → Azure Blob (Cool/Archive) with governance overlays.
Phase 1 Cost Comparison
£0.22
SharePoint Extra Storage
Cost per GB per month
£0.011
Azure Blob Cool Tier
Cost per GB per month – 95% less
£0.001
Azure Blob Archive Tier
Cost per GB per month – 99.5% less
£62k
Annual Savings
Projected from migration at RES scale
Phase 2 – Governance and Controls Setup
Weeks 7–12: Hardening the Rules for Sustainable Cleanup and Offloading
1
Intelligent Versioning Deployment
Establish organization-wide versioning defaults: unlimited for 30 days, then hourly up to 60 days, daily to 180 days, and weekly thereafter, with hard caps per library. Override these defaults for high-risk libraries, applying stricter or more generous policies as necessary and documenting all changes in the governance register.
2
Retention and Legal Requirements
Deploy baseline retention policies within Purview, such as deleting general content 5 years after last modification and specific project types after 10 years. Apply retention labels to content under strict legal or regulatory hold, permitting version trimming while preventing deletion until the retention period expires.
3
Site Lifecycle and Provisioning
Implement inactive site policies that flag sites with over 180 days of inactivity for owner review, offering options to retain, archive, or delete. Introduce standard site templates with embedded retention, versioning, and permission patterns. Automate provisioning workflows to enforce naming, ownership, and justification rules, leveraging Structurepoint to streamline the process.
Phase 2 Deliverables
Governance Runbook
Detailed guide covering temporal data, versioning, and retention policies.
Updated Site Templates
Standard templates pre-configured with governance controls and automated provisioning workflows.
Phase 3 – Pilot Implementation
Weeks 13–18: Controlled Validation in a Safe, Representative Slice
1
Pilot Scope Selection
Select 5–10 TB of data from diverse sources: project sites, collaboration sites, and low-risk archives (inactive but occasionally referenced). Confirm stakeholder engagement, risk acceptance levels, and rollback procedures with both business and compliance teams.
2
Azure and Tool Configuration
Deploy Azure Blob storage in compliant regional data centers (e.g., UK for UK entities, EU for EU entities). Install and configure SMART Migration/Smart Offload tools, ensuring seamless SharePoint-to-Blob connectivity and robust security alignment (RBAC, encryption, logging).
3
Execution and Validation
Execute data offload for cool and archive files based on defined temporal rules. Test incremental migration triggers for new qualifying content. Rigorously validate metadata integrity, version availability, permission parity, and rehydration scenarios. Assess user experience, including proxy behavior and retrieval efficiency.
Phase 3 Validation Checklist
Technical Validation
  • Metadata integrity across all migrated files
  • Version availability and accessibility
  • Permission parity between SharePoint and Blob
  • Rehydration scenarios and retrieval times
  • Proxy behavior and user experience

Key Deliverables: Pilot report, including performance metrics, integrity validation, user feedback, and confirmed savings. Also, updated playbooks documenting known issues and mitigation patterns.
Phase 4 – Full Rollout and Automation
Weeks 19–36: Industrialisation Phase Delivering Significant Savings
Wave-Based Migration Plan
Prioritize oldest, least-accessed sites and libraries first. Progress to more recent cool data, keeping hot data in SharePoint. Configure parallel migration waves (by region, business unit, or site category) to manage risk and change.
Operational Automation
Automate offloading for new content meeting temporal and metadata criteria, preventing storage bloat. Integrate migration status with monitoring dashboards and alerting for failures or anomalies.
Organizational Change and Training
Provide targeted training for site owners on offloading, content retrieval, and restore requests. Offer simple guidance for end users, explaining that content remains accessible but long-inactive files may take longer to retrieve from Archive.
Phase 4 Migration Strategy
1
Wave 1: Archive Data
Targets oldest, least-accessed sites and libraries (inactive for 180+ days).
2
Wave 2: Cool Data
Focuses on recent cool data (inactive for 30–180 days).
3
Wave 3: Automation
Automates offloading for all new qualifying content.
4
Completion
Achieves full rollout, with robust monitoring and reporting implemented.
Key Deliverables: A comprehensive rollout completion report detailing storage and cost efficiencies (SharePoint vs Azure). Includes updated governance metrics showcasing coverage, such as the share of sites with applied policies.
Phase 5 – Optimisation and Managed Service
Month 10 Onwards: Long-Term Managed Service with Continuous Improvement
Continuous Structurepoint Audits
Conduct quarterly reviews to identify newly inactive sites, libraries, and data patterns, adjusting thresholds and rules as needed. Optimize content placement, determining what remains 'Cool' and what can be safely moved to 'Archive' based on observed access patterns.
Compliance and Security Evolution
Monitor evolving regulatory changes (e.g., regional data residency, sector-specific retention rules) and adapt policies and Blob region usage accordingly. Verify encryption, conditional access, and logging controls align with organizational security standards.
Executive Reporting and KPI Tracking
Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs), including annual cost reduction, percentage of data in each Structurepoint category, policy coverage, and automated deletion rate. Provide clear dashboards and executive summaries demonstrating sustained savings and compliance posture.

Key Deliverables: Quarterly "Structurepoint Storage Report" plus roadmap items for enhancements (e.g., extension to other repositories, deeper AI-based classification).
KPIs, Target Metrics, and Commercial Packaging
70%
Cost Reduction
Reduce paid SharePoint overage costs from approximately £99k to £20–30k annually at RES scale.
40-50
TB Migrated
Migrate 40-50 TB of data to Blob storage at large-tenant scale, including at least 15 TB in the Archive tier.
100%
Policy Coverage
Ensure 100% policy coverage for sites with retention and versioning by the end of the rollout period.
95%
Automation Rate
Achieve a 95% automation rate for eligible data deletions via lifecycle rules, minimizing manual cleanup.
Commercial Packaging
Package 1: Assessment and Blueprint
A 4–6 week fixed-fee engagement covering Phases 1–2: assessment, architecture design, and governance strategy.
Package 2: Implementation and Rollout
A 3–6 month project fee covering pilot implementation, full rollout, and automation of cleanup and offloading processes.
Package 3: Structurepoint Managed Storage
A monthly service providing quarterly audits, rule tuning, comprehensive reporting, and minor system enhancements.