Organization
A Salesforce org (organization) represents a single customer's instance of Salesforce, containing all their data, configurations, customizations, and users, uniquely identified by an Organization ID.
Definition
A Salesforce org (organization) represents a single customer's instance of Salesforce, containing all their data, configurations, customizations, and users, uniquely identified by an Organization ID.
In plain English
“A Salesforce Organization (or org) is a single customer's instance of Salesforce. It has its own data, configurations, customizations, and users, all uniquely identified by an Organization ID. Each customer of Salesforce gets their own org.”
Worked example
Larkmoor Software is a single Salesforce customer; their Salesforce Organization (or org) is the unique instance containing all their data, customizations, users, and metadata. The Organization has its own 18-character Organization ID (00D...). When Larkmoor employees log in, they log in to the Larkmoor Organization. The Organization is the unit of customer separation in Salesforce's multi-tenant architecture - different customers' Organizations share infrastructure but never share data, configuration, or users. Most discussions of "the org" or "my Salesforce environment" mean the Organization.
Why Organization matters
A Salesforce org (organization) represents a single customer's instance of Salesforce, containing all their data, configurations, customizations, and users, uniquely identified by an Organization ID (a 15 or 18-character ID). Salesforce's multi-tenant architecture means many orgs run on shared infrastructure, but each org's data and configuration are isolated from all other orgs. The org is the unit of customer ownership in Salesforce.
Most customers have one production org plus various sandbox orgs (Developer, Developer Pro, Partial Copy, Full) for development and testing. ISV partners may operate many orgs across their development, license management, and customer support functions. Knowing about org concepts matters for understanding Salesforce's basic structure: every Salesforce environment is an org, and every org has an ID, owners, users, and customizations of its own.
How organizations use Organization
Operates multiple orgs: one production, several sandboxes, and a dedicated DE org for ISV work.
Tracks all their orgs in Environment Hub for unified management of production and sandboxes.
Trains developers on org concepts as foundational to understanding Salesforce architecture.
Test your knowledge
Q1. What is a Salesforce Organization?
Q2. How is an org identified?
Q3. What types of orgs exist?
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