Delegate Google Apps Administration

While most computer environments have at least one network administration account with unrestricted access, many administrators have moved to segment administrative responsibilities across different individuals and departments.

Last week, this capability was added to Google Apps control panel.

Google Apps now has two (2) levels of administrators:

Super Administrators have complete access to the Google Apps administrator control panel and can perform all administrator actions.

Restricted Administrators are given the ability to manage specific tabs in the control panel.  For each tab, you can allow/restrict certain administrative functions.

Both Super and Restricted Administrators have the ability to:

  • The ability to view and edit other users’ Google Sites
  • Rights to use the Google Apps administrative APIs, such as the Provisioning API
  • The ability to log into the Google Apps administrator control panel

Details of the available admin functions and how you can restrict functions can be found here.

Please note that distribution of administrative capabilities is not available by organization unit at this time. Administrators granted access to a control panel tab have the ability to manage those functions for all users.

IT Departments can now segment administrative responsibilities by function, providing many organizations with the ability to segment responsibilities.  The change also supports common division of responsibilities between Help Desk and “Tier 2” support staff.   Help desk staff can not be empowered to change passwords, for example, without giving them the ability to create new users.

The impact of this change is significant as this capability has been often requested by mid-size and enterprise IT departments.