In this blog, we take a fresh look at dynamic groups in Google Workspace.

Firstly, how do Google Groups work?

Google Groups are a way of organising Google users that share the same permissions. They let users communicate and collaborate with colleagues through sharing a common email address. 

Google Groups can be used as a powerful tool for admins to apply consistent access and security policies to sets of users or devices. Admins can pull together groups of users and apply bulk actions to everyone in the group, such as allocating data access in Google Drive or ensuring that they all receive emails sent to their group email address.

Updates to Workspace dynamic groups 

Google recently extended the functionality of dynamic groups in two important ways: 

• First, dynamic groups can now be defined by querying custom user attributes. 
• Second, dynamic groups can also be defined based on users’ membership in Organisational Units (OUs). This enhances the functionality of Google Groups by allowing group membership to be automatically updated based on parameters such as location, department, or job title. 

Why it’s important

If you’re an admin and you have to move lots of people into new roles in your organisation - the process can become very time-consuming. With dynamic groups, all you have to do is update their profile and everything else happens automatically.

Dynamic groups can be used for email distribution lists, access control, group based policy, and more. Compared to regular Google Groups they have the added benefit that memberships are automatically kept up-to-date. Automating membership management increases security, reduces errors, and alleviates user frustration. Importantly it also takes a lot of the manual burden off admins.

Dynamic groups are now available! 

• Dynamic groups are available to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, and Education Plus customers. Check out our tier comparison here!
• Not available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Education Fundamentals, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers 

If you think that dynamic groups could help streamline the changes in your organisation, get in touch with Cobry. We’ve got a team of experts to simplify the process and you’ll have efficient, time-saving processes in no time.