Organizations and Virtual Organizations

Organizations are Identity Manager containers used to enable administrative delegation. They define the scope of entities that an Identity Manager administrator controls or manages.

Organizations can also represent direct links into directory-based resources. These are called virtual organizations. Virtual organizations allow direct management of resource data without loading information into the Identity Manager repository. By mirroring an existing directory structure and membership through a virtual organization, Identity Manager eliminates duplicate and time-consuming setup tasks.

Organizations that contain other organizations are parent organizations. You can create organizations in a flat structure or arrange them in a hierarchy. The hierarchy can represent departments, geographical areas, or other logical divisions by which you manage user accounts.

For more information on organizations, see Understanding Identity Manager Organizations.