Get started with the free version of Microsoft Purview governance solutions

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Important

This feature is currently in preview. The Supplemental Terms of Use for Microsoft Azure Previews include additional legal terms that apply to Azure features that are in beta, in preview, or otherwise not yet released into general availability.

The free version of Microsoft Purview governance solutions provides an automatically available instance, ready for your users without setup. It allows your organization to try Microsoft Purview's basic capabilities and begin your governance journey. This article offers some best practices to help you quickly get started in Microsoft Purview.

Access to this version of Microsoft Purview depends on your organization's current relationship with Microsoft Purview; whether you're a new Microsoft Purview user, if you have existing accounts, or if you're using other services like Microsoft Fabric. For more information, see how to access the free version of Microsoft Purview governance solutions..

What's available in the free version?

Users who have access to data stored in supported Azure resources have access to its metadata in Microsoft Purview. Data readers can search for and browse this metadata and data owners can augment the metadata to provide more context.

Only a core subset of Microsoft Purview's governance solutions with limited capabilities are currently available in the free version:

For a full information about the free version, see our article about the free version of Microsoft Purview governance solutions.

How to start your governance journey

The free version of Microsoft Purview governance solutions lets you get started on your governance journey even as you begin planning. Once your organization has access to the free version of Microsoft Purview governance solutions, use this guide to build your governance experience.

  1. Explore the Microsoft Purview portal.

  2. See what metadata for supported Azure sources is already available in your Data Catalog.

  3. Search or browse the data catalog to understand your initial assets.

  4. Engage your data owners, and add data curators to manage metadata in your environment.

  5. Work with your data owners and curators to augment the metadata for existing data sources. This gives your users more context and information about their data sources.

  6. Add your other critical Azure resources to the data map using our REST APIs.

    Important

    Only data curators will be able to access any resources added to the data map using the REST APIs. In order for other users to be able to access, upgrade to the enterprise version of Microsoft Purview.

  7. Engage your users to discover your users to access your resources in the Data Catalog.

When you're ready to expand

Once you've added and curated your critical Azure resources in the Microsoft Purview portal, if you're looking for more governance features, you're ready to upgrade to the enterprise version of Microsoft Purview.

When you upgrade, all the information you have and have added to the free version of Microsoft Purview governance solutions will be available in the enterprise version of Microsoft Purview within minutes, so you can get started using all of the enterprise features right away. Here's some steps you can take to prepare your environment for upgrade.

  1. Start planning your governance journey using our deployment checklist. The checklist helps you deploy the resources and permissions you need once you've upgraded to the enterprise version of Microsoft Purview.
  2. Review our deployment best practices to start the right conversations in your organization.
  3. Consider your network architecture for Microsoft Purview.
  4. Plan your collections architecture for your data map.
  5. Upgrade to the enterprise version of Microsoft Purview.
  6. Review our scanning, classification, and business glossary best practices to start your journey on the best foot.

Tip

If you used the REST APIs to add sources and assets in the free version of Microsoft Purview governance solutions that you can now scan in the enterprise version, Microsoft Purview will normalize the newly scanned information and add it to your existing resources.

Next steps