- OUs are containers within an AD domain, used to organize and manage objects such as user accounts, computer accounts, groups or other OUs.
- Hierarchical structure for organizing and delegating admin control over objects in the directory
- Used to organize objects in logical manner based on geographical, or departmental criteria.
- Simplify administration by allowing administrators to apply group policy settings, permissions and other configurations to multiple objects at once.
- They can have group Policy Objects (GPOs) linked to them to apply specific configurations to objects within the OU.
- Administrative tasks can be assigned to specific OUs to distribute administrative responsibilities.
- OUs are used for organizing and managing objects within the AD, while security groups are used for access control and permission management.
- OUs created hierarchical structure while Security Groups ca be organized in a flat structure.
- OUs used for administrative delegation, Group Policy application and object organization while security groups are used for access control and defining permissions.