Google recommends using the organizational unit (OU) structure for applying different settings and policies to different groups of users and devices within your Google Workspace domain. To apply a unique set of policies to each department, you should create a child organizational unit for each department under your main domain structure.
Here's why option D aligns with Google's best practices and why the others are less suitable:
* D. Create a child organizational unit for each department.
* Explanation: Organizational units provide a hierarchical structure for managing users and devices. By creating a child OU for each department, you can then apply specific device and user policies to that OU. Users and devices within a child OU inherit policies from parent OUs but can also have OU-specific policies that override or supplement the inherited ones. This allows for granular control and ensures that each department can have the policies tailored to its needs. This is the recommended method by Google for managing policies based on departments or other logical groupings within an organization.
* Associate Google Workspace Administrator topics guides or documents reference: The official Google Workspace Admin Help documentation on "How the organizational structure works" and "Apply settings for specific groups of users or devices" (or similar titles) clearly explains the purpose and benefits of using OUs for policy management. It emphasizes the hierarchical nature and how policies are applied and inherited through the OU structure. Creating child OUs for departments is a direct application of this recommended practice.
* A. Create separate top-level organizational units for each department.
* Explanation: Creating separate top-level OUs for each department is generally not recommended for managing policies within the same organization. Top-level OUs are meant to represent distinct functional or administrative units that might have their own domain settings and administrators. Managing all departments under a single domain but in separate top-level OUs can complicate overall administration, sharing, and user management across the organization.
Child OUs within a single domain provide the necessary separation for policy application while maintaining a unified organizational structure.
* Associate Google Workspace Administrator topics guides or documents reference: Google's documentation on organizational structure usually advises on creating a logical hierarchy of child OUs under a single top-level OU representing the organization. Separating departments into top- level OUs is not a standard or recommended practice for policy management within a single domain.
* B. Create an Access group for each department. Configure the applicable policies.
* Explanation: Access groups are primarily used for controlling access to specific resources or services. While you can manage group membership based on departments, policies for users and devices are typically applied at the organizational unit level, not directly to access groups. While some settings might be influenced by group membership, OUs are the primary mechanism for policy enforcement.
* Associate Google Workspace Administrator topics guides or documents reference: The Google Workspace Admin Help distinguishes between organizational units and groups (including access groups). Policies are consistently described as being applied to OUs. Groups are for managing access and collaboration.
* C. Add all managed users and devices in the top-level organizational unit.
* Explanation: Applying all policies at the top-level OU would mean that all users and devices inherit the same set of policies. This contradicts the requirement of having different policies for each department. To achieve department-specific policies, you need to organize users and devices into separate OUs.
* Associate Google Workspace Administrator topics guides or documents reference: Google's documentation emphasizes the flexibility of the OU structure to apply different policies to different subsets of users and devices. Placing everyone in the top-level OU negates this flexibility.
Therefore, the Google-recommended practice for applying different device and user policies to employees in different departments is to create a child organizational unit for each department. This allows for targeted policy application and management within the overall organizational structure.