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If COUs are defined, they can be flat (no hierarchy, all are at the same level), or a COU can have a parent COU (in which case a hierarchy is implied).

CO Departments

CO Departments are primary objects within Registry, which means that they are intended to store representations of external objects (just like CO People). CO Departments can attach to either a CO or a COU, and can be used to store a number of attributes about the department, including telephone numbers, email addresses, URLs, identifiers, and the sets of people associated with specific responsibilities within the department. CO Departments can be used to support various use cases:

• In a VO deployment, CO Departments can be used to represent research groups.
• In an enterprise deployment, CO Departments can be used to represent the University department hierarchy.

While there may typically be a one-to-one relationship between CO Departments and COUs, it is not strictly necessary. For example, a COU maybe made up of members spanning two departments.

CO Departments are specifically intended to be used with Registry Services and the Service Portal. 

COUs vs CO Groups

Comparison Summary