Okta + MuleSoft: A Strong, Scalable Platform Solution That Builds Consumer Trust

The digital age has dramatically transformed a wide array of experiences that used to be brick-and-mortar, from banking to retail to entertainment, raising consumer expectations for quality user experiences. Thanks to streaming services like Netflix, for example, consumers have quickly grown accustomed to watching whatever they want, whenever, from any device; other customer-first experiences include online payments, cloud-based microservices, self-service password resets, and other emerging best practices.

In response, companies have had to quickly re-create experiences from the ground up in digital so they can meet their customers where they are and deliver value. Doing this safely and at scale means building API-driven external B2B and B2C services to better engage customers and other end users. For customers, this lets them quickly stand up seamless omnichannel experiences; for internal teams, this can produce a 360° view of customers that drives strategy, opens up- and cross-selling opportunities, and builds trust. But securing these services is a serious challenge—one addressed directly by Okta and Mulesoft.

Join the Okta and Mulesoft Digital Services and Enterprise API Security webinar on June 18th to find out how it’s done.

Scaling APIs Safely And Seamlessly

The rapid proliferation of APIs in this complex, evolving ecosystem raises formidable new security concerns: Gartner claims that “by 2022, API abuses will be the most-frequent attack vector resulting in data breaches for enterprise web applications.” Historically, security hasn’t always been a top concern in API development, and that’s part of the problem. Typically, a company’s API evolution starts with private APIs, used exclusively by employees who are often in the same datacenter and on the same network. Later, an evolving company will begin sharing APIs across enterprise teams, then with partner organizations and different outside companies. By the time APIs are made public and shared widely, and the risk becomes clearer, bad API-security processes and habits can already be ingrained, and the fix can be expensive and disruptive.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Addressing this issue early requires a disciplined approach to adding in layers of security from the start of API development. Strong identity management establishes a Zero Trust environment that lets companies confidently scale their API activity (and everything else). And it forms the basis for consumer trust: Customers need to know who’s collecting their information, how they’re doing it, and what they’re using it for, and enterprise teams need to know who’s accessing what and why, even as the pace of development quickens.

Once, IAM for consumers and IAM for the workforce had little overlap. But today, requirements for frictionless, secure single sign-on (SSO), account provisioning, password management, identity lifecycle management, and API authorization are as important for customers as they are for your workers. Organizations need layers of connectivity and security underpinning a unified platform that streamlines the user experience and makes it consistent across apps. Secure API management backed by strong identity-based access management ensures that enterprise security can scale even as identities and APIs proliferate.

Okta and Mulesoft: Powering Platforms that Build Trust

For years, Okta and MuleSoft have been working together to help clients create strong, efficient, secure platforms that generate customer and workforce trust. Here’s a quick example: A major insurance company that had grown over years through mergers and acquisitions found itself with dozens of brands, thousands of independent agents, and multiple inherited, incompatible systems. Agents needed to log in to separate systems to sell different products; customers had to use separate usernames and passwords to access information, and separate enterprise teams managed each system. It was chaos. But Okta and MuleSoft helped the insurer quickly streamline everything into a unified solution. Okta simplified and centralized authentication and authorization, and MuleSoft powered secure API connections among all these previously disparate systems so data could travel freely and securely. Result: Customers and agents gained a single, secure, seamless experience, including dramatically easier access into complete portfolio-level and customer-level views of policy information.

Creating that kind of frictionless and powerful experience for your customers and workforce is a challenge—but in the competitive new world dawning, it’s the only approach that will succeed. Okta, the leading independent provider of identity for the enterprise, and MuleSoft, provider of the leading hybrid integration platform, integrate out of the box to provide business agility and quick time to value, so organizations can build the engaging experiences required by today’s consumers. MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform delivers strong security and integration capabilities across the full API lifecycle. Okta API Access Management provides easy, centralized, identity-driven access management across an organization’s APIs and users.

Secure The Backend; Focus On Building Customer Experiences

To confidently provide engaging omnichannel experiences for today’s customers, you need to be able to safely connect your systems and data behind the scenes, and provide customers with secure and frictionless access to this securely interconnected ecosystem. With Okta and Mulesoft working together, your teams can stand up excellent, safe, seamless experiences for customers and other end users, increasing engagement, adding real value to their lives, and building brand trust over the long haul.

To find out how it’s done, don’t miss Okta and Mulesoft’s Digital Services, Enterprise API Security webinar.