The Identity Imperative for IT Modernization

Chances are, no matter your size, you’re probably facing new and distinct challenges as your business evolves to meet the shifting expectations of your users. In fact, a recent survey from IDG* found that the top priorities for CIOs are to protect against security breaches, modernize enterprise IT, and move to a cloud and mobile-first strategy. 

Across industries and geographies, we’ve seen firsthand how organizations must respond to changing trends—and how identity is critical to making sure companies stay up-to-speed and secure while meeting users’ needs. Read on to learn the top trends in IT modernization and core IT projects to address them.

The Four Business Trends Powering IT Modernization

Cloud Adoption 

It’s likely that more people in your organization are asking to use new cloud apps. Maybe HR wants to use Workday to streamline their systems. Or employees are asking for Box to share critical documents. Chances are, your internal and external users are all looking to best-of-breed cloud apps to help them get their work done. The trick is, you need an easy way to move to the cloud without sacrificing workflows, usability, or security.

Mobile Workforce

Remote working is on the rise, in part thanks to the growth of internet-connected mobile devices that make it even easier to work on the go. You should make sure your employees can access the applications they need from any location, on any device.

Outside Collaboration

Every outside partner with whom you collaborate— from suppliers to resellers, consultants to contractors—needs seamless and secure access to your apps and tools. However, you need to control their levels of access to safeguard against unwanted access breaches.

API Economy

Today’s modern applications are built upon APIs and microservices. Whether your organization needs to oservices. Whether your organization needs to connect to outside APIs or expose your own, you need to manage and control access. 

Core IT Projects To Address These Challenges

As an IT professional, you play a crucial role in transforming your business environment. It’s important to take on the following projects to stay ahead of the top business trends and improve the digital experience for all.

Facilitate Cloud to Ground App Adoption

You need to offer your users seamless and secure access to any app, from any device, and any location. You’re likely working with both cloud and on-prem infrastructure, and need a way to quickly and cost-effectively deploy new cloud apps while integrating with existing ones. 

Rather than deploying apps on an individual basis, you should find cloud-based solutions to streamline the deployment process, such as single sign-on. Single sign-on allows users to easily log in to all their apps with one set of credentials. It also allows IT teams to implement strong authentication and access policies across all web and mobile apps. Okta’s Single Sign-On has over 5,500 preintegrated apps and over 1,000 SAML integrations.

Centralize Identity and Access Management

You need to gain a single, consolidated view of all users across your apps and directories. However, users in a mobile workforce are often spread across “islands of identity” including corporate directories such as Microsoft Active Directory (AD), LDAP directories, HR systems, and SaaS apps. IT eams need to manage these islands of identity and tie them together so that personal information isn’t fragmented across the organization. With the proper tools, you can gain real-time control of the data and services your users access every day. Okta’s Universal Directory creates a centralized view of users. This single repository of user identity information stores profiles, manages passwords, and applies access policies while creating a consistent UX across all sites, apps, and products.

Automate to Reduce IT Friction

Automation has always been an important part of IT. But the proliferation of users, outside collaborators, apps, devices, user locations, and APIs, has intensified the need to eliminate manual, error-prone processes that increase the risk of a security breach.

Automating repetitive operational functions such as provisioning and deprovisioning user access gives IT teams the freedom to concentrate on adding business value and driving real change. Okta’s Lifecycle Management solutions allow IT admin to assign appropriate levels of user access. It comes with extensible pre-integrated provisioning to applications, a lifecycle orchestration engine with workflows and policies, and access governance reporting. 

A Faster, Happier Workplace Starts in the Cloud 

Don't just take our word for it—look at how one of our customers has improved employee and customer experiences with Okta.

Experian leveraged Okta to centralize identity and access management and gain a centralized view of all user profiles. By deploying Okta internally to all 16,000 employees, Experian was able to connect all applications company-wide and retire costly on-prem services within a few months.

Okta’s identity technology is now extended through APIs, allowing direct customers to interface and access Experian’s data and data sources—meaning no more fragmented islands of identity. 

Experian is just one of thousands of companies who rely on Okta to streamline identity and increase productivity. 

Visit www.okta.com/customers to learn more. 

Okta is the go-forward strategy for all authentication and will be the single standard that we use. It will have a huge impact on everything we build going forward. Barry Libenson, CIO, Experian

You can Modernize Your Enterprise IT With Okta

Modernizing your IT isn’t just an investment in infrastructure—it’s an investment in your business performance. Whatever your approach, Okta can help you take that leap and ensure you’re providing your customers and employees with consistent, seamless, and secure experiences. Visit www.okta.com/solutions/modernize-enterprise-it/ to learn more or get in touch.

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*IDG. Modernizing Enterprise IT: Motivators + Challenges, September 2018

**LogicMonitor. Cloud Vision 2020: The Future of Cloud Safety, November, 2017