2018 in Review: Bringing Identity Mainstream

In 2018, identity became more important than ever before. Innovation raced ahead, but privacy concerns and mistrust in the technology industry also mounted. These shifts raised new questions about how we define our identities, who will own them, and how we can protect them.

Because of this, our mission to securely connect any person to any technology has taken on new importance. We believe identity is one of the greatest challenges of our time, and this year, we’ve continued to focus on developing products, building partnerships, and hosting events that bring us closer to finding a solution together.

The culmination of this work was Oktane18, our annual customer conference. Speaking on-stage with President Barack Obama will always be a personal highlight of mine, but I’m even prouder of the new products and partnerships the team at Okta brought to life at the conference. Here are just a few:

• We joined forces with VMware to integrate VMware Workspace ONE and the Okta Identity Cloud to allow our customers to easily and securely move to the cloud, adopt best-of-breed technologies and simplify IT management.

• We teamed up with Workplace by Facebook to give enterprises a simple, secure way to enable modern collaboration for their workers.

• We released API Products for One App, which makes it easy and affordable for engineering teams to use Okta to power modern authentication for any single website or application.

• Along with Fuze, OrgWiki, VMware and Zylo, we launched Sign In with Okta, a secure authentication system for app providers and developers that combines the ease of social authentication with the security of enterprise infrastructure.

That’s not all, though. 2018 was a busy and exciting year at Okta. Here are a few additional highlights:

• In January, we released our annual Businesses at Work Report, which took an in-depth look into how organizations and people work today. We discovered companies are heavily investing in security apps, and stringent password policies and high-assurance second factors are crucial for strong security.

• We hosted our first-ever developer conference, Iterate, in February to discuss how developers can build applications better, faster and smarter – and have fun doing it.

• In July, we welcomed ScaleFT to our team. An early pioneer in Zero Trust security, ScaleFT brings additional firepower to both our security offerings and our team. Then in November, we debuted as a Strong Performer in a new report on Zero Trust security from analyst firm Forrester Research: The Forrester Wave™: Zero Trust eXtended (ZTX) Ecosystem Providers, Q4 2018.

• We continued to invest in Okta for Good, giving back to the communities in which we live and work. Through this program, we announced a grant to Fast Forward, an organization that funds and supports nonprofit entrepreneurs building technology for social impact.

• We expanded across the globe, opening new offices in Toronto, Paris, Stockholm and Washington DC, and doubling our footprint in San Jose.

• We focused on diversity + inclusion by developing and maturing our employee resource groups (ERGs), establishing monthly W@Okta talks for Women@Okta, launching People of Color @Okta and hosting events for POC@Okta, W@Okta, and Pride@Okta.

• We welcomed new customers to the Okta family, including Nordstrom, MLB, Albertsons, JetBlue, and State Department.

• And last but not least, we were recognized as a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Access Management, Worldwide 2018 for the second consecutive year.

It was a year full of milestones for us, but we’re just getting started. As the technology landscape continues to change, we’re committed to delivering the most innovative identity solutions so you can focus on fulfilling your unique missions. Our team is more excited than ever to continue our hard work in 2019, and we all thank you — our customers and partners — for your trust in us.