Rising Risks: How to Manage Data Sprawl in Google Workspace

This piece was originally published on the AvePoint Blog

Collaboration is effortless in Google Workspace — but so is data sprawl. As teams move quickly and share information more frequently across Docs, Sheets, Drive, and Chat, organizations are losing track of what data is available, who owns it, and who has access to it.

A 2025 industry survey found that 82% of cybersecurity professionals report gaps in finding and classifying organizational data across production, customer, and employee data stores. That lack of visibility translates into more than just audit anxiety; it’s a gateway to security breaches, compliance violations, and operational chaos.

And here’s the hard truth: Perimeter security is no longer enough. In today’s cloud-native world, risk doesn’t always come from the outside. It lives inside the firewall, in every overexposed document, unmanaged Chat thread, or misclassified file. Gartner predicts that through 2026, at least 80% of unauthorized AI transactions will stem from internal policy failures, not malicious attackers.

So, what does data security look like for collaboration environments at risk for sprawl? It means adopting a governance mindset that’s embedded, adaptive, and context-aware. Data sprawl can occur on any platform, but how you respond can define your organization’s resilience.

Why You Need More Than Perimeter-Based Security

Perimeter-based security is foundational, but in Google Workspace, it’s far from sufficient.

Traditional security practices assume anything shared inside the network is inherently safe. But Workspace data doesn’t stay neatly behind firewalls. It travels across Drives, inboxes, and third-party apps. Increasingly, it flows into shadow tools that employees adopt without approval. That’s where cracks form and attackers slip in.

According to Google Cloud Security's Threat Horizons report, 34% of initial attack vectors in Google Cloud in the second half of 2024 came from misconfigurations — second only to compromised credentials. Gartner goes further: Through 2025, 90% of organizations that fail to manage public cloud usage will accidentally expose sensitive data.

The biggest threat isn’t a broken lock — it’s an open window. And that window is often a public Drive link, an unmanaged integration, or a misconfigured permission buried deep in a folder structure no one owns.

The Compounding Cost of Sprawl

Unmanaged sprawl sounds like a security headache, but it’s also a productivity killer.

Microsoft’s 2024 Digital Defense Report noted that 80% of organizations had exposed paths to critical assets. That exposure isn’t always obvious, but it’s always risky. Files go untracked, permissions stay wide open, and sensitive information gets duplicated or shared without oversight.

As a result, the costs compound quickly:

• Security exposure. More data means more blind spots and more potential breaches.
• Compliance drag. Frameworks like GDPR and HIPAA demand clear audit trails and granular control. Sprawl makes achieving both harder.
• Operational inefficiency. When data lives in silos or piles up unmanaged, employees waste time searching, recreating, or second-guessing what’s current.
• AI inaccuracy. Without governed data, AI models make bad decisions based on outdated or irrelevant content.

McKinsey’s The State of AI 2024 report found that only 46% of enterprises had centralized data governance in place. That means more than half are still operating in fragmented, siloed environments where duplication, exposure, and poor decisions thrive. This environment makes it harder for organizations to move fast and easier to move wrong.

What Smart Data Governance Looks Like

Smart governance doesn’t mean locking everything down. It means building controls that scale with your people, tools, and pace of work.

According to Microsoft, organizations that maintain strong cyber hygiene can prevent up to 99% of cyberattacks. This doesn’t just rely on advanced threat detection. It involves consistently applying baseline data security protections like secure configurations, access restrictions, and data hygiene policies that eliminate common vulnerabilities. Once those basics are in place, organizations can start laying the foundation for scalable governance with integrated, automated tools that adapt to how teams actually work. That’s not a pipe dream — it’s the outcome of structured, modern governance.

Here’s how that would look like in action:

• Automated. Policies kick in the moment content is created or modified — not weeks later during a manual audit.
• Integrated: Governance is baked into the Google Workspace fabric and not added as an afterthought or dependent on user compliance.
• Context-aware: Enforcement adapts based on sensitivity, ownership, file type, and sharing behavior.
• Scalable. Controls expand seamlessly across teams, regions, and regulatory requirements.

This approach is already helping organizations bring order to sprawl. One public K–8 school district in New Jersey struggled to keep up with the growing volume of sensitive student data shared via Google Drive, Gmail, and Classroom. Manual oversight couldn’t keep pace. By centralizing visibility and implementing automated backups with frequent scheduling, they ensured data was both recoverable and better protected. Risk dropped, and so did the administrative burden.

Four Steps to Regain Control of Google Workspace Sprawl

Sprawl might feel like a runaway train, but it is manageable. Organizations can restore control without grinding collaboration to a halt by following these steps:

1. Surface What You Can’t See

Use automated discovery to locate and tag files across Drive, Gmail, Chat, and connected tools. Prioritize high-risk data, such as personal identifiable information (PII) and financial records, and unknown file owners.

2. Rein In Overexposure

Auto-detect files with open links, public permissions, or outdated access. Then, apply sharing policies based on sensitivity and roles instead of blanket restrictions that frustrate users.

3. Apply Retention with Precision

Set policies based on file classification and usage, not just folders or creation dates. Auto-expire content that’s no longer needed to reduce both clutter and liability.

4. Monitor Behavior, Not Just Files

Track how data moves. Risk lives in files and patterns. Monitor for unusually large file downloads and new third-party apps accessing sensitive content.

Business Benefits That Go Beyond Security

Smart governance in cloud environments like Google Workspace doesn’t just keep data safe — it unlocks real, measurable business outcomes. Here’s how:

• Embedded controls reduce data exposure by preventing oversharing before it happens, eliminating common points of failure.
• Real-time insight into file access, classification, and usage gives organizations the regulatory confidence to scale without hesitation.
• Automated enforcement drives meaningful time savings, freeing IT and compliance teams from endless manual reviews.
• Clean, well-governed data leads to faster decisions, empowering both AI systems and human teams to act clearly and efficiently. 

Let’s be honest: Less time spent chasing permissions or cleaning up after the fact means more time for IT and compliance teams to focus on what actually moves the needle. That’s how data loss prevention becomes a built-in advantage in a multi-cloud environment.

Governance shouldn’t be seen as a speed bump. When designed well, it’s a fast lane. It brings order to chaos, clarity to clutter, and resilience to every workflow.

The sooner you bring visibility and control into your Google Workspace environment, the better positioned you’ll be to scale collaboration, meet compliance requirements, and adopt AI with confidence.

Struggling with Sprawl? Find Out How to Get Your Data State in Order

Sign up for an AvePoint Google Workspace demo to see how you can reduce sprawl, uncover hidden risks, and enforce governance at scale without slowing your teams down.