Independent Research Firm Cites Okta’s Strong Authentication Capabilities and Broad SaaS Application Support as Market Differentiators
San Francisco, CA – August 3, 2012 – Okta, the leading on-demand identity and access management service, today announced that Forrester Research, Inc. has named the company a leader in enterprise cloud identity and access management (IAM) in its Forrester Wave Report published in late July. A free version of the report is available for download here.
The market for cloud-based IAM is growing significantly and will grow 500 percent by 2015, according to analyst estimates. Hastened by rapid cloud application adoption and mobile device use, business workflows are being increasingly pushed beyond the firewall. As a result, identity-based data vulnerabilities remain a critical issue for enterprises. The demand for secure, scalable IAM solutions – encompassing on-premise, hosted and SaaS services – is high.
Recognizing this market growth and demand, Forrester issued its report, “The Forrester Wave: Enterprise Cloud Identity and Access Management, Q3 2012.” The report identifies the six most significant solution providers in the market, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of each vendor against 15 criteria, including current offering, strategy and market presence. Against these criteria, Okta was named a leader, demonstrating that the company is “… highly tailored to meet the requirements of cloud service access control and offers among the best capabilities for an integrated offering.”
Okta is one of the few (less than one percent) SaaS providers to complete the rigorous SOC 2 Type II audit against all five associated trust principles, demonstrating unprecedented levels of security and operational maturity. In addition, Okta’s zero downtime architecture has maintained more than 99.9 percent availability over the last twelve months – enabling the company to maintain service through major disruptions when many other cloud-based companies suffered downtime. Another key differentiator is the Okta Application Network, which, supported by seamless single sign-on, includes more than 1,500 pre-integrated applications.
Forrester also describes the evolving role of cloud IAM providers as strategic partners in the Wave report. From “all-ways” access management for partner extranet apps to fully integrated offerings, the leading IAM vendors encompass a variety of different business functionalities. Named an enterprise cloud IAM leader, Okta is at the forefront of this transition, working strategically with enterprise customers and partners to build unique, robust service offerings. The report states, “We see the market moving toward turning IAM into an explicit business enabler rather than a mere cost center.”
IAM leaders are leading the charge toward this model and, in accordance, Okta’s solution, “1) has pre-integrated many SaaS business applications; 2) extensively supports Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA); 3) supports inbound SAML for identity provider (IdP) proxying, which can be useful when supporting business partners in a Zero Trust Identity framework; and 4) offers extensive help capabilities,” wrote Forrester analysts Andras Cser and Eve Maler.
“We believe that Forrester’s recognition of Okta not only validates our position as a cloud-native market leader, but also drives home the growing demand for identity management across companies of all kinds,” said Okta CEO Todd McKinnon. “As enterprises move to a world of cloud applications, mobile devices, and increasing collaboration with customers and partners, they demand a new kind of solution to help manage and secure these new IT environments. We’re committed to being the ‘glue’ that binds everything together – and have invested aggressively to ensure the highest levels of security, scalability and reliability for our customers.”
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