EMM and MFA without the WTF

If you happen to be at RSA this week, you’re likely to encounter all sorts of acronyms – including CSA, MDM, CISO, MFA, CCSK… the list goes on. Keeping up with all these acronyms is one thing – and trying to keep up with the latest technology is an entirely separate task. As we look at the proliferation of mobile devices – and additional security challenges that come with these devices – we’ve heard time and again, “Between EMM and MFA, there has to be a better way." This is a message that deeply resonates with Okta customers who have had experience with various EMM and MFA solutions - but why?

Let’s start with Enterprise Mobility Management. Let’s face it, no one loves their EMM vendor. Of course, love is a strong word – especially when we’re talking about enterprise security technology providers – but just about every customer we’ve spoken with shares a common disdain for legacy providers because they’re solving old problems in device-centric ways, not putting the user first. Users know this – they don’t want to give up control of their devices to IT, thinking that their personal photos and emails will deleted when they leave the company. There’s also the fear that with legacy EMM, IT can track your every move, read your personal emails and can wipe your phone on a whim. And because legacy solutions aren’t user-centric, they derive their value at the expense of the user experience. In other words, people can’t stand their EMM providers because they feel like they are sacrificing privacy and have to overcome too many annoying hurdles to actually get to the applications or data they need to be productive. There has to be a better way.

The same is true of MFA. We hear about costly security breaches almost every week, and at the same time we know that multi-factor authentication is one of the best ways to avoid them. But for whatever reason, people tend to think implementing MFA means you have to handcuff or hinder your people. Your users want simple access – and they don’t want to carry around extra pieces of hardware on their keychains.

We want to redefine what it means to implement EMM and MFA with a user-centric approach for securing your mobile workforce. We understand that to support BYOD, end users have to see the value in enrolling a personal device in mobility management, while at the same time not sacrificing privacy. That’s what we’re setting out to deliver with Okta Mobility Management and Okta Verify with Push – one single place to find and download all their mobile apps, as well as enabling secure access to accounts and data.

Now go back six years and think about how people viewed their IDM providers. Just like with EMM and MFA, you can be sure it wasn’t love. But today it’s easy to see that our customers love Okta. That’s because we’re solving modern problems in a user-centric way, and delivering an integrated identity and mobility management solution. So, this love thing? It can be done. Because there is a better way – one that can enable the increased level of security that organizations need without sacrificing the end user experience.

If you happen to be at RSA, we’d love to talk about how we’ve delivering EMM + MFA (without the WTF). Join us at the Okta booth S1645 in the South Hall of Moscone to learn how leading enterprises such as Del Monte, Twilio, LinkedIn and Avago Technologies are using Okta’s Mobility Management or Multifactor Authentication solutions to connect people to their applications from any device, anywhere, at anytime. We’re also giving out the latest Okta shirt, so stop by to get yours this week.