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Understanding Workspaces and Organizations

Every SecureAuth Connect tenant has at least one workspace. Organizations are an optional feature you add to a workspace when you need multiple business customers to have isolated access.

Workspaces​

A workspace is your identity and authorization environment in SecureAuth. It has:

  • Identity pool - Where all users are stored
  • Authorization server - Handles login and token issuance
  • Applications - Your applications and resources that need authentication
  • Policies - Security rules and access control defaults
  • Branding - Logos, colors, email templates

Create a new workspace when you need different security models, compliance requirements, or user populations. For example, one workspace for internal employees and another for external customers.

Organizations​

Organizations let you represent multiple business customers or partners inside a single workspace. Each organization:

  • Represents one business customer
  • Has its own users and administrators
  • Inherits workspace policies as defaults
  • Can override workspace policies with stricter rules
  • Enables delegated administration (customers manage their own users)

Quick comparison​

AspectWorkspaceOrganization
PurposeYour identity environmentCustomer tenant within your workspace
When to createDifferent security models or productsMultiple business customers
User managementYou manage workspace usersCustomers manage their own users
PoliciesSets baseline defaultsInherit or override workspace policies
IsolationIndependent from other workspacesIsolated from other organizations

When to use organizations​

Create organizations when:

  • You're building a B2B SaaS platform
  • Multiple business customers need isolated access
  • Each customer manages their own users
  • Customers need their own administrative control

For a detailed walkthrough of how to use organizations in a B2B SaaS scenario, see Building B2B SaaS platforms with Organizations.

Suborganizations​

If a customer has hierarchical structures (like a franchise with store locations), create suborganizations nested under a parent organization. This lets customers organize their own structure while maintaining security isolation.

Learn how to set up suborganizations in Create organizations and suborganizations.

Policy layering​

Workspaces set baseline policies that all organizations inherit. Organizations can then override with stricter rules when needed.

Example:

  • Workspace policy: All users require MFA
  • Organization A policy: Admins must use WebAuthn
  • Organization B policy: Inherits workspace requirement (MFA)

See also​