Key concepts

Organization:

An Organization is a hierarchy comprised of Organizational Units (OU) and Member Accounts. Each Organization can have a maximum three levels of OUs.

Organizational Units (OU):

Organizational Units (OU) are nodes in your Organization. How you choose to define the nodes is up to you. For example, a node can be a region or a division of your company. In the Organization Portal, OUs appear as folders that contain accounts and sub-OUs.

Root Account:

The Root Account is the account that created the Organization. An Organization can have only one Root Account.

The Root Account user:

• Can create an IAM user and delegate permissions to manage the organization
• Is responsible for managing the entire organization
• Adds and deletes an organization and sub-OUs
• Invites members to join an organization
• Cannot be changed to a Member Account

Member Account:

A Member Account is a FortiCloud account that joins an Organization. To join an Organization, the Member Account must accept an invitation. A Member Account can be a member of only one organization at a time.

Member Accounts:

• Cannot remove themselves from an Organization. To leave the Organization, they must request to be removed.
• Member Accounts cannot see the other members in the organization.

Example Organization structure

While the organization is divided into a hierarchy, the user location within the hierarchy is independent of their permissions. The user's access is dependent on their permission profile and scope, including the available and selected scope. For more information, see Available and selected scope in the Identity & Access Management (IAM) Guide.