Okta Platform Reviews

I have hands-on experience with Okta Platform for a little over three years, starting in 2023, integrating SaaS apps with SAML, OIDC, enabling MFA, including WebAuthn and FIDO2, and building group-based assignments.

Since then, I have day-to-day admin tasks including app onboarding, policy tuning, certificate and metadata rotation, lifecycle automation, HR-driven processes, and troubleshooting SSO issues end-to-end, including IDP and SP log attribute mapping and role entitlements.

The main use case is centralized SSO and MFA for internal apps with event-driven lifecycle automation and JML to enforce least privilege and clean deprovisioning. Some examples from a typical day include onboarding new hires every morning via HR events from Workday, ensuring the right access is provided and provisioning automatically to enforce MFA while keeping auditors happy regarding least privilege and SOD.

The HR trigger, such as Workday pushing a new hire to our IAM workflow, allows Okta Platform to serve as the IDP and source for app access, mapping job codes and departments to Okta Platform groups, such as sales to US finance analyst, while integrating apps toward Snowflake with read-only permissions. After integrating apps, the SSO setup gets done with SAML or OIDC protocols with Okta Platform as the IDP, validating NameID, subject format, sign, and encrypt settings while rotating all SP or IDP certificates as per schedule.

Subsequently, MFA and conditional access are arranged where policies require Okta Verify push on everything we engage with. We also manage attribute governance by maintaining profile mapping, including username, email ID, and department entitlements. App rules are assigned via groups, followed by monitoring and troubleshooting, ensuring a smooth deprovisioning process. For leavers, Workday termination revokes Okta Platform account and app assignments immediately, resulting in new hires being productive on day one while keeping admin efforts low and long ticket trails rare.

Automation has acted as a force multiplier for my workload and my team's efficiency. We moved from ticket-driven manual steps to a predictable policy-driven flow, making onboarding faster, cleaner, and far less noisy.

Okta Platform has positively impacted my organization through measurable risk reduction, faster onboarding, and fewer tickets. The concrete data indicates that the onboarding cycle time reduced by 50 to 60%, from one to two working days down to two to four hours for most SaaS apps. The day-one access rate has increased from 78 to 96%, with a relative score for new hires having required apps by 9:00 AM on their start date. Furthermore, the ticket volumes have fallen by 30 to 40% over the quarter.

The best features offered by Okta Platform that stand out most to me in my day-to-day work include Universal Directory and profile mapping, which matter as they form the foundation for clean attribute-driven access. I can normalize identities from HR and AD, map attributes once, and drive consistent entitlement across apps.

Additionally, features including group rules, dynamic assignments, SSO with robust protocols supporting SAML and various OIDC integrations, excellent provisioning, deprovisioning capabilities, adaptive MFA, WebAuthn, and efficient system and troubleshooting tools also stand out.

Universal Directory and profile mapping help me with day-to-day identity management by serving as the backbone for keeping identity data clean, consistent, and automation-friendly. Practically, Universal Directory acts as a single source of truth for users, allowing us to aggregate attributes from HR, Workday, AD, and other sources into a single Okta Platform user profile. This normalization standardizes formats, such as email in lowercase and phone numbers in E.164, preventing downstream apps from breaking due to case sensitivity or formatting.

Profile mapping enables me to transform attributes once, such as concatenating first.last for usernames, deriving different manager emails, and reusing them across all apps. This creates clean, predictable attributes driving group rules, which in turn govern app assignments and SCIM provisioning, making the JML process work efficiently without the need for tickets.

Okta Platform Integration Network's capability to enable faster deployments serves as a force multiplier for speed and risk reduction when it is mature and well-curated. It essentially turns a lot of custom work into configuration, which results in gains in deployment speed and reliability.

I assess the role of Universal Directory as a single source of truth for user identities in my organization as central to how we enforce identity hygiene and drive automated access. Its role functions as an authoritative profile and policy engine that normalizes identity data and pushes clean, consistent attributes downstream. We utilize it for data aggregation, normalization, profile mapping and precedence, attribute-driven access, federation claims, and policy enforcement. The measured outcomes with Universal Directory in the middle indicate that onboarding lifecycle durations dropped by more than 30 to 40%, with late access-related tickets falling by the same percentage, around 35 to 40%.

Although I am a fan of Okta Platform overall, there are areas where it could improve security outcomes and reduce admin friction. My top improvement areas include the system log and analytics upgrade, which are great for point troubleshooting, but trending and root cause analysis across large tenants still require exporting to SIEM. Verbose queries and long-range retention costs can add up. Additionally, while certificate rotations are better than most, the process is still manual for busy portfolios, especially concerning multi-SP SAML certificate rotations and app metadata drift.

Two more buckets of potential improvements for Okta Platform involve user experience and security. There is the issue of push fatigue and prompt sprawl, where users receive multiple prompts across different apps and sessions.

I arrived at the rating of eight because the core controls are strong and reliable, but a few operational UX and UI gaps prevent it from being rated higher. The reasons for not giving it a nine or ten include ongoing issues concerning safety and change safety, the complexity of group rules and mappings, and the lack of robustness in policy management. Additionally, there remains a need for more manual involvement than necessary, especially for large portfolios and dual certificate rotation, along with proactive SP data metadata validation.

I have been working in my current field since April 2023, with a little over three years of experience in that time.

Okta Platform is stable on an enterprise scale; however, scalability ultimately depends on how one architects and operates the system.

The scalability of Okta Platform is impressive, but its effectiveness relies on how integrations are designed, rate limits are handled, and day-to-day operations are managed. Customer support is generally reliable, featuring clear tiers with excellent assistance during roll-outs if the right plan is chosen and SLAs are well defined. Best outcomes emerge when paired with strong internal runbooks and partner support.

Overall, customer support tends to be dependable, but the real experience will depend on the support tier selected and the level of preparedness.

Positive

Before adopting Okta Platform, we utilized a homegrown SSO system employing ADFS for certain apps and direct LDAP binds for others, alongside a few apps with local accounts.

Automated lifecycle management has transformed my onboarding and offboarding efficiency significantly. Previously, onboarding felt toward a bottleneck, and offboarding raised risk concerns. Before implementing the Okta Platform-driven lifecycle, HR would create a ticket in ServiceNow, and three different teams would manually provision AD, email, and six to eight SaaS apps, which typically took around one to two business days, during which errors frequently occurred, including wrong groups and missed deprovisioning, resulting in no clean audit trail.

Offboarding was even worse, with terminations after hours sitting until the next day, creating 12 to 24-hour orphaned account windows across key apps. The task was to automate the entire JML process end-to-end. After integrating Okta Platform and linking HR to serve as Okta Platform UD, mapping everything, and designing attribute-driven access with SCIM provisioning while implementing movers logic, the results were remarkable. The time-to-access dropped from one to two days down to two to four hours for SCIM provisioning, improving day-one readiness from 78 to 96% for new hires. Manual provisioning tasks fell by 55%, allowing the IAM team to reclaim 10 to 12 hours per week to focus on governance and SOD areas.

This transformation allowed HR hires in Workday to auto-create the Okta Platform user, with Universal Directory attributes driving the assignment seamlessly.

My impression of the automated threat response feature in Okta Platform AI is that it brings net positive results concerning both speed and containment when tuned appropriately. It shortens the time from suspicious signals to protective actions, practically reducing risk without overwhelming the SOC with noise.

We have seen a return on investment with clear metrics that demonstrate both hard savings and reduced risk.

Pricing for Okta Platform has proven to be straightforward, with no challenges encountered. As a fully SaaS solution, everything is pre-built and managed by Okta Platform. The costs come down to paying for subscriptions, professional services, and ongoing operations, specifically licensing workforce identity with SSO and adaptive MFA for all employees, along with add-ons towards Lifecycle Management for JML automation at scale, Advanced Server Access for Linux and Windows servers, and IGA for access certification indicating SOD. The pricing per-user list drops when user counts rise and with multi-year commitments.

In evaluating options prior to choosing Okta Platform, we ran a structured assessment comparing various solutions such as ADFS, Duo plus manual JML, and also considered alternatives including Microsoft Entra ID and Ping Identity.

My advice for teams considering Okta Platform is to start with clear objectives and metrics, defining what success looks like to ensure effective implementation. I am providing this review with an overall rating of eight.

I have been using Okta Platform for almost four years. In my current organization, I use Okta Platform as a cloud-based IAM platform for purposes like Single Sign-On, multi-factor authentication, lifecycle management, as well as for universal directories. It provides secure, automated user provisioning and access to applications for employers and customers, and it is also useful for risk authentication and API access management. Okta Platform is an AI-driven technology that detects threat-related models, signaling if anything potentially harmful might occur. Thus, there are various uses for Okta Platform.

Okta Platform protects non-human identities in my environment, including service accounts, machine-to-machine access, and AI agents. Regarding non-human identity protection, the ServiceNow team creates a non-human identity that flows into Okta Platform and generates a generic password for them. It helps manage our service accounts and includes customization features that enable these non-human identities to automatically activate their passwords every 60 days and restrict logins to approved systems only, not from personal or any other devices.

Okta Platform helps to address specific industry and regulatory requirements in my cloud environment, including usage within the banking sector, finance sector, and one of the large logistics sectors. We also have a client in the pharmacy sector where we use Okta Platform as a complete end-to-end product.

For Okta Platform deployment model, I am using AWS. I have integrated and secured AWS services through Okta Platform by utilizing Single Sign-On for application integration and using Terraform for project deployments.

The best features of Okta Platform include Single Sign-On, which offers one-click access for thousands of cloud and on-premise applications, and great lifecycle management. It automates user provisioning and de-provisioning, managing the entire identity lifecycle from onboarding to offboarding. Additionally, it provides excellent scalability along with device and administrative tools management, making Single Sign-On and lifecycle management the standout features.

Using Okta Platform, we can utilize almost 7,000 pre-built integrations with popular applications. It provides easy and customizable configuration based on client requirements, allowing for development of user onboarding, offboarding, and updating processes. There are numerous API features, including passwordless authentication and B2B customer identity with a CIAM feature. Okta Platform secures APIs to control access and protect sensitive data, enabling users to reset passwords or unlock accounts without IT intervention. Moreover, it offers standard and custom reports to monitor access, ensuring compliance and visibility into potential security risks.

Okta Platform helps to secure access to cloud infrastructure, APIs, containerized workloads, or AI/GenAI services in my architecture by utilizing two modules: Identity Threat Protection (ITP) and identity governance and automation. ITP analyzes login patterns, device posture, and network data to detect anomalous activity, and it enables universal logout for instant revocation of access tokens across all supported applications if suspicious behavior is detected. The shared signals framework, along with Log Investigator and natural language processing, allows admins to query system logs in plain English for quicker investigations. In terms of identity governance and automation, it analyzes user roles and activity to recommend the least privileged access, optimizing governance policies and generating summaries of user access rights for access certification reviews.

While I see very few areas for improvement in Okta Platform, I do note its high cost, which can be particularly challenging for smaller organizations looking to utilize advanced features like Okta Workflows. Additionally, there are reporting limitations, as some users find Okta Platform's built-in reports less detailed compared to competitors. Furthermore, frequent multi-factor authentication prompts can cause MFA fatigue, disrupting user experience. Lastly, there is limited on-premise support, which, while robust in the cloud, is often expensive to manage for legacy on-premise applications, making these features candidates for enhancement.

I have been using Okta Platform for almost four years.

In terms of stability, I faced some issues in 2022, but for the last three years, there have been no scalability problems. Okta Platform efficiently supports scalability, allowing for extensive individual tenants within a single environment, as well as onboarding and offboarding processes for thousands of applications. Clients can scale their API access requests beyond default limits, which is adaptable according to requirements without impacting performance or deployment.

In terms of stability, I faced some issues in 2022, but for the last three years, there have been no scalability problems. Okta Platform efficiently supports scalability, allowing for extensive individual tenants within a single environment, as well as onboarding and offboarding processes for thousands of applications. Clients can scale their API access requests beyond default limits, which is adaptable according to requirements without impacting performance or deployment.

I would rate Okta Platform's tech support and customer service as an eight out of ten, as their availability can be rare and requires scheduled calls, often taking a significant time to receive solutions. However, the support provided is generally very good.

Before adopting Okta Platform, I had used OneLogin and Entra ID for identity and access management, specifically for privileged access.

The deployment experience with Okta Platform varies based on client requirements. For large-scale applications, it took almost two to three months, while small-scale organizations required around six to seven days. I have not faced issues during deployment; it has consistently met our clients' expectations.

For deployment, our AWS DevOps team works on the deployment-related aspects and supports the workloads secured by Okta Platform.

Since implementing Okta Platform, I have noticed measurable security and operational improvements in our cloud-based workloads. Initially, we faced complex implementation challenges, but now it supports much faster and easier implementation and deployment in production, thanks to AI utilization. We resolved earlier centralized risks, and credentials are now managed in a very encrypted manner, which has improved performance and security.

I find Okta Platform cost-effective and worthwhile to purchase due to its vendor-neutral nature, supporting thousands of pre-built integrations with third-party applications. It is highly flexible with adaptive MFA, includes user behavior analytics and custom workflows, which many competitors do not offer. Its granular and easily configurable policy engine, along with a strong lifecycle management process, makes it worthy of investment for any organization despite its cost.

I evaluated OneLogin and Entra ID before choosing Okta Platform.

My advice for organizations considering Okta Platform is that if cost is not a concern, they should definitely opt for it, as it features excellent user lifecycle management, identity governance, re-certification, user provisioning, and strong Single Sign-On functionalities. I would rate this review as a nine out of ten.

Based on customer requirements for Okta Platform, I have worked on multiple engagements. Passkeys are related to inline hooks. Currently, whatever the client requires, we ensure that Okta can fit into the environment where the client is looking to implement it. The client environment and Okta should come together and complete the client's requirement. This includes MFA-related configurations, SMS-related features, third-party SMS providers, MFAs for only particular users, or network zones restrictions.

Okta Platform has peculiarities that can adopt a client environment easily compared to other single sign-on tools. It is very user-friendly and admin-friendly with everything available through a plug-and-play approach. Most other products, such as OneLogin, are tricky to understand and require more implementation work. With Okta Platform, you just need to take the plugin and use it with your current environment. Okta Platform also has more workflows automations available, which are unique features. Okta Platform is always coming up with new features such as OPAM and governance.

Okta Platform has the capability to protect non-human identities. Okta Platform has a Universal Directory that can pull accounts from different sources and store them securely. With different connectors and service accounts, you can connect to a PAM tool and ensure that passwords are rotated frequently, such as every hour or every 24 hours.

Okta Platform's reliability and availability are top-notch. Okta Platform is a SaaS-based tool with in-house disaster recovery. It does not have any downtime. If you see frequent downtimes or inaccessible tools with other products, you cannot go with those products. With Okta Platform, you have zero downtime and a proper environment to handle everything, which is why every customer is moving to it for reliability.

Okta Platform is already improving in many ways because whatever the current hot topic is, such as AI, Okta Platform is also bringing it up. I believe they are already one step ahead for every industry standard, so I do not think improvable things will do because they are already in the pipeline.

One feature I can mention is that there should be an optional registration option for multiple MFA factors. If a user has already migrated to one type of multifactor authentication and wants to register for another multifactor option, there is currently no option unless it is required. If an industry standard requires a new MFA, we want to give users the option for other multifactor authentication, but currently, this is a mandatory feature only. Some cases mean users do not want to register for new things, so whenever they want to feel comfortable, they should be able to do it. This feature is really restricting because it is mandatory. I want to have it as optional and more flexible for registering multiple MFA options.

I have used Okta Platform for about 7.5 years.

We do communicate with the technical support of Okta Platform, and they have exceptional knowledge of what they are doing. They have three types of supporting models such as gold, diamond, and premium plus. They are reachable and have a toll-free number that you can call anytime for assistance. They also have a networking team with very good support. Every type of issue has a proper team to support it, so you do not need to go to multiple teams. When you write the description, it will specify whether the issue is related to MFA and which MFA support to reach out to, or if it is related to developers and which developer support to contact. Earlier, you would go to the support team and they would segregate it and raise the case in the backend with the developers.

I rate the technical support of Okta Platform as nine out of ten. The one percent adjustment is due to time zone differences. Although you have 24/7 support for all time zones, there will be some gap from one time zone to another time zone.

The usual setup process for Okta Platform starts with onboarding applications if a company has a number of applications to enable single sign-on. Second, if a company wants a new set of policies and automations, such as revoking access within a specific timeframe, you can use connectors in workflows to create this functionality. You can create connectors that disable an account when a user is no longer accessing an application, serving as governance or a license saver.

Installation for Okta Platform is very easy and uses a plug-and-play approach that will take hardly three to four hours. However, the pre-installation steps require testing based on those requirements. If you have a large number of applications to use, you need to take more extra precautions. Installation-wise, it is simple with just a download and install of agents or configuration of workflows, which is a matter of time that could be one day or something. However, it is based on the situation at the client's side. You need to understand the client's requirements and properly relate them to Okta Platform, which will differ from client to client. I cannot tell that this is very much easy to implement because some clients have environments with dependencies.

Initial challenges for Okta Platform are based on the client environment. Customers will expect more customizations for CIAM-related things. Okta Platform has two things in CIAM: Workforce and CIAM. In Customer Identity Access Management, there are some gaps because applications may be capable but it is hard to move the piece of Okta Platform due to applications. For example, an application may need Passkeys because customers now want Passkeys as an advanced feature. If the application is using some older versions of custom widgets or sign-in widgets and you want to implement this new feature, that will take some tricky and hard challenges.

Okta Platform uses advanced AES cryptography to transfer access in depth. For APIs, it is also now using access tokens instead of regular APIs that you can just create and use. The texture in Okta Platform is completely different, and you can use a bearer token instead of an API token, which will control the permissions and attributes to use those APIs. Whenever a user wants to access some API, they first need to call and do machine-to-machine communication before proceeding with changes. Within the time the token session ends, you cannot access it next time, making it more secure than the earlier API approach. In the past, you could create an API token and copy and paste it somewhere to use, but now it is more advanced.

Okta Platform is on the cloud and not on-premises. Okta Platform has the capability to handle both internally facing and customer-facing solutions. Okta Platform now also has the OAuth feature, which is an advanced technology for handling customers. Whatever industries you look at, such as hospitalities, insurance, or marketing, many industries are using Okta Platform because it has the capability to adopt and give the solution that the client exactly needed.

Okta Platform has more adaptability. If you have any number of problems, it has the adaptability to solve them. Okta Platform has that capacity. Now with new features, you have governance, Universal Directory, PAM, MFA, and automations all in one place. If you are having older applications that do not support SAML, you have an access gateway connector. Whatever problem you have, there is a solution with Okta Platform, and it has that capability to resolve those issues. Okta Platform can fit in approximately 99% of any environment. I would rate this review an overall 9.5 out of 10.

I use Okta Platform as an administrator to set up new SAML and SSO apps. We also use the governance module as well. We also use the automation functions with workflows. We use it mainly as our main identity platform. I have been using it at all my past companies.

What I appreciate about Okta Platform is that it is most of the time a very good no-code platform. It allows us to set up new SSO integrations quite easily, even if the app doesn't really support SSO natively. It is pretty easy to configure on Okta Platform.

Okta Platform has impacted my organization positively by providing convenience, first of all. There are no more different passwords for many different apps, since SSO doesn't really require password storing. Security has also improved because we eliminate a very big weak point that passwords represent. Additionally, we maintain control to ensure we only give access to the necessary apps to the necessary people.

I would definitely see improvements in the governance module of Okta Platform. The way we do certification of accesses, certification campaigns, and access requests could be improved. A better way for users to actually request an instance in Okta Platform, for example, an app, without having to use a third-party integration for ServiceNow or Jira Service Management, would be valuable. Having something built in to Okta Platform would be beneficial.

From the features perspective, functionality-wise, I would see recent features included in Okta Platform. Our company works on a hub-and-spoke model, and Okta Platform did introduce a way to have more of a federated level. What they call claim sharing, and we really would appreciate a bit more improvement on that functionality, since that functionality helps us to have a single identity on a hub and pass that identity to the other spokes and have seamless login between all of them. Claim sharing helps with that, but the function is still not the best, especially related to authentication policies. There are still some issues, especially when we have some mismatch between the authentication policies on different spokes. I definitely would appreciate some more improvements. Additionally, I would appreciate a bit more improvements on the logging features of Okta Platform, which still are not the best.

I have been working with Okta Platform for more than five years at this point.

Regarding the Okta Platform, it has been stable. We do have different cells in different countries since we work on a hub-spoke model. On our EMEA cell, it has been quite stable. We did have some problems before on our US cells in these past few months, but nothing too serious. Most of the time, issues happen after hours on the US market. On our EMEA side, there have been no issues in these past few months.

I find Okta Platform scalable and have not hit any limitations or scalability issues with it. We do have a good contract with our vendor that allows us to set up new users at any time and they basically review the contract a year after if we need to have more users. We really don't have scalability issues.

If I would evaluate customer service and technical support of Okta Platform from one to ten, I would say a very good nine. We do have a very good relationship with our customer support representative, customer support manager in this case, or CSM. We also have a dedicated Okta Platform tech that we go to with more high-level questions. The level one support with the normal ticketing system from Okta Platform works pretty well most of the time. I never faced any issues, and if we need to escalate it for more complex issues, we can go to our dedicated tech manager support or our customer success manager and they are pretty quick to respond.

I have mainly used Okta Platform. I did use a bit of Ping Identity, but it was so long ago that I really don't remember a lot of the platform at this point.

When it comes to the deployment process of the initial setup with Okta Platform, we definitely faced some complexities, especially related to the way users authenticate. Sometimes authentication policies are a bit buggy in the sense that sometimes they really don't detect the correct browser that the user is using or there are issues related to the location of the user. The part of security authentication sometimes really doesn't work as well as it could. We did experience some problems in that sense.

The deployment of Okta Platform was implemented fully in-house.

We did look at other solutions as well, such as One Identity and Ping Identity, before choosing Okta Platform. We decided to go with Okta Platform since it was the more complete option on the market at the time, with all the necessary functions that we had, especially related to authentication policies. It also had a better catalog of pre-built apps as well, so it was a bit more simple. We also started looking a few years ago to maybe replace Okta Platform with Entra ID, because we also did have Azure products, but we decided to keep Okta Platform because Okta Platform still has much more documentation and much more time in the market. Their solution is a bit better in that sense.

My best piece of advice for others who are looking into implementing Okta Platform would be related to the knowledge base. I would make sure people read through the main knowledge base from Okta Platform, so the main steps of integrations. One of the good advantages of Okta Platform is that most applications and authentication are all the same, since it uses base protocols such as SAML or OIDC. If you are able to build one, the other ones are pretty easy to build. Go through the knowledge base that Okta Platform has, which is very rich for understanding if it is actually a good solution for your problems. If it is, Okta Platform would be a good solution to use.

The AWS services that are integrated or secured through Okta Platform mainly include AWS Cloud directly for cloud computing purposes.

Okta Platform does protect non-human identities in our environments, such as service accounts. We have the perspective that we can monitor the access, so who actually accesses the accounts and who is the manager of those accounts. We maintain password rotation and password policies for those types of accounts, which are different from a normal user account. Okta Platform helps us with that.

Related to the financial market, Okta Platform helps our company address specific regulatory requirements because we need to be SOX compliant, since we are a public traded company. Okta Platform helped us with being SOX compliant.

I have noticed measurable security and operational improvements in our cloud-based workloads since implementing Okta Platform. One of the main ones is access to AWS cloud environments. Thanks to Okta Platform, we can set up push groups to the AWS IAM module. We can actually give access to specific AWS spaces to specific teams in this case. For example, if we have a cloud team that works on a specific region, we can give access to an Okta Platform group to that specific team, and they will have access to that AWS cloud space. We have a lot of that, and it helped us a lot.

I would rate this review a nine overall.

We started Okta Platform as an SSO solution. We are using it for workflows configuring like JML and all the automation. Okta Platform is being used for the JML purpose like joiner, mover, leaver purposes and all the automations.

We are using ServiceNow, so Okta Platform is integrated with them using the APIs. We have custom applications that we are integrating with using the APIs, and it is supporting very well.

In our environment, we have not enabled Okta Platform for service accounts, and we have bypassed Okta Platform authentication for those things. I am not certain if Okta Platform can support those accounts, but in our environment, we have bypassed those items.

The first thing I appreciate about Okta Platform is the security, and then the JML automation process. It is truly amazing and makes life easier for us.

We have multiple applications before using multiple authentication methods, using multiple kinds of Intranet ID and many other things. Now, we have moved to one platform which is Okta Platform. We have a single source of Okta Platform, and not only that. Before we had many processes using ServiceNow for the management services. We have integrated Okta Platform with that to make the process more automated. This makes life easier, making things faster and more secure, with one point of one resource of authentication. It is very user-friendly.

Okta Platform supports integration with the APIs as well for applications which do not have SAML and Zero Auth. Okta Platform can integrate with the APIs.

It has been two years for me with Okta Platform, so I still cannot judge if they need improvement in specific parts. So far, it is covering what my requirements are. Perhaps in the future, if I encounter limitations, I can provide feedback. For now, I have no concerns about this.

I can say one more thing. I am in Saudi Arabia, and Okta Platform is hosted somewhere in Germany on the AWS platform. Every country has their own compliance requirements. Saudi Arabia requires any application, every software, everything to be hosted inside the kingdom. This is our country's compliance requirement. Okta Platform is not hosted in the Saudi region. In fact, it is not even in the Middle East; it is somewhere in Germany. If it were moved to every country with their own data center, it would cover all of our compliance related issues, and every country could align with that. Saudi Arabia especially needs every application, every software, every tool to be inside the kingdom, where Okta Platform is somewhere outside. If they move to the Saudi region or somewhere in the Middle East, it would be really helpful for us.

It has been two years.

Since Okta Platform is a SaaS service, we do not have to do anything. We just need a mid-server and that is all. That works for us. We do not have any main challenges with Okta Platform.

I am still in the phase of rolling out Okta Platform completely. I have not done the complete rollout. I cannot assess this now because we are in one of the biggest companies, so we have many things, more than 300 applications, and a lot of other items. We are still in the phase of rolling out Okta Platform everywhere.

I have dealt with some issues and have raised tickets, and they were really helpful. They replied immediately with no delay. Since I am also using professional services, the responses are quicker because of that. They are very good.

For tech support, I can rate them an eight. The only thing I found is that they are working somewhere in the UK, and I am working in a different time zone, so there is a time difference. If I raise a ticket, I will get a reply the next day. That is the only issue because of the time difference. Otherwise, it is an eight.

Before, we were using Microsoft and some other kinds of authentication methods. Okta Platform has replaced those things. Almost, I feel both are the same. I did not feel much difference in the security aspect. It is the same for all.

We were on Microsoft and some other third-party authentication, though I do not remember the exact name. Then we moved to Okta Platform. It was not much, but we moved from Microsoft and some other small things to Okta Platform.

Since Okta Platform is a SaaS service, we do not have to do anything. We just need a mid-server and that is all. That works for us. We do not have any main challenges with the initial setup of Okta Platform. We need to properly design the deployment according to our organization's needs, rolling out things accordingly. But otherwise, the deployment of Okta Platform in our environment and the initial setup is straightforward because it is a SaaS service.

We did not buy Okta Platform directly because, in the Saudi region, Okta Platform is not there. They do not have any head office here or any base here. We went through another third-party company. Through them, we are buying Okta Platform.

We do have Okta Platform team with us for managed services and professional services from Okta Platform's side, along with our team. They are handling these things for us from Okta Platform itself.

We have calculated the number of seats and users. We have around 4,000 user licenses.

Okta Platform is a bit expensive compared to other solutions. Okta Platform is a bit expensive, and in fact, I am using the managed services from Okta Platform. They too are a bit expensive for us, but we are using them because we are happy to go with this solution. Otherwise, compared to others, they are expensive.

We did not buy Okta Platform directly because, in the Saudi region, Okta Platform is not there. They do not have any head office here or any base here. We went through another third-party company. Through them, we are buying Okta Platform.

It is more user-friendly than Microsoft, and Microsoft only has authentication factors. Okta Platform has other kinds of services, such as JML processes and other workflows that we can design. Microsoft does not support those things. Even though Auth0 and other solutions are more flexible, Okta Platform offers more capabilities, so we have moved with Okta Platform.

I can say it is more secure, more user-friendly, and integration with applications is easier. It does not require expert professionals to manage it. Anybody can manage it fairly easily. If you are dedicated to working on Okta Platform, then it is very easy to manage. Integration with applications is very straightforward, and there are a lot of user guides available, which help us work with Okta Platform.

My overall rating for this solution is seven.

Okta Platform has primarily acted as an identity provider across my organizations. The key component is that even though people have HR systems nowadays, they do not have all the sorts of automations which we require on a daily basis for what we need for the users. For example, in my previous organization, there was no lifecycle automation management. In that order, we used Okta Platform Workflows in automating the CRUD operations, such as creating user accounts, updating whenever a user gets promoted or demoted, and deletion once the user has been leaving from the company. These were the major use cases where we handled identities across the organization and provided access through the SSO or OIDC access through Okta Platform Workflow portal.

We have approached many clients. They were using some native Oracle-based IAM systems, which was too hard for them to maintain and manage for the users. When the client approached my organization, the major request for them was that it should be highly reliable and have a promising uptime value.

It also was for a project requirement. Basically, my organization is heavily relying on Microsoft, but we exactly took Okta Platform for a client requirement. We got a US-based client, and it was a very big project for us, and their all native system was running on Okta Platform. In order to have that sort of running, and they did not have a test tenant. That was where we moved forward and thought to bring up the tenant in Okta Platform and try our sandbox environment, spinning up all the resources and checking how exactly it goes. That was the point where we adapted to Okta Platform and understood the scope and how exactly it has been working.

One thing which makes Okta Platform different from everything is the feasibility of the integration it provides. It almost has all sorts of integrations required for SSO. Okta Platform does not give any cloud platform an upper hand or bias. It has all sorts of integration available. Plus, it is user-friendly and the UI is very promising for the people who work on automations, especially in the workflows. It works in a card-based system, essentially low-code, no-code.

Okta Platform allows troubleshooting of any sort of blocker from the platform and implementing the requirement. The documentation on Okta Platform is extensive and less confusing compared to other identity providers.

Okta Platform is highly reliable and does not have any sort of downtime. Okta Platform also offers customer-managed support for each account. Okta Platform has regular client meetups to educate us on new launches or features such as FIDO.

Okta Platform has a wide variety of API requirements. For example, not all native SSO applications have SCIM requirements, but Okta APIs can help automate even where SCIM is not present. Okta Platform also integrates with AI practices for automation.

Okta Platform provides scalability options with minimal latency. Okta Platform is very scalable, allowing user addition without immediate payment during the current cycle. These scalability attributes cater to larger organizations as well as small businesses.

Okta Platform Application Network is very helpful for identifying integration possibilities. All details that a developer needs would be available in one place.

Okta Platform facilitates SSO capabilities without cloud platform bias and has a user-friendly, card-based automation system. Okta offers focused and efficient customer support, which is highly appreciated.

Whenever we have any sort of technical issues or configuration issues, they have a solution. Customer support is very responsive and effective.

The one thing which can be improved in Okta Platform would be the certifications which they provide. It is crucial for people to get recognized in the industry. Also, some of their documents have outdated images or screenshots, leading to confusion. Keeping the knowledge base updated quarterly is advisable.

In my environment, I have not specifically used some concepts like device management and Okta Platform's OAuth in the CISM platform. I would like to have further implementation progress on them.

I have been working with Okta Platform for almost three plus years.

There were not any downtimes whenever I worked with Okta Platform, but there was a scenario where applications were not visible inside the dashboard. It was fixed within 45 minutes to an hour. Users did have access to the applications in the directories, but they were not visible at the endpoint during this time.

Scalability in Okta Platform is notable for its minimal latency. For my organization, which had only been licensed for Okta Platform up to 50 identities, scaling up was not an issue even when our HR team onboarded more people. This feature makes Okta Platform applicable for larger organizations or small startups.

Whenever there is a need to add users, it is possible, and during the next cycle of payment, we only need to pay them up. This is an immense advantage over platforms such as Google Workspace, which require licenses at most instances.

All the people, especially those who work in Okta Platform, are highly educated. The customer support team has resolutions for the issues or does not make us wait too long. They efficiently access their vast knowledge base and return quickly with solutions. For Okta Platform, the customer service is seamless, and I am very satisfied with their assistance compared to other channels such as Microsoft's, which usually takes longer to resolve issues.

Whenever we create a ticket, Okta Platform usually sorts everything via Zoom calls. Positive experiences every time have led to my satisfaction with their customer support services.

Active Directory is always comfortable in working with Entra because it is a Microsoft product. When starting a company new to technology, Okta Platform is beneficial. Microsoft is a go-to for organizations with legacy identities utilizing Microsoft tools. For Jamf-reliant and MacBook major users, Okta Platform is optimal.

We also use Okta Platform under a client requirement. Since all native systems were on Okta, a test tenant was not available, and hence, understanding the benefits of working on Okta was necessary.

I am not able to recall the price structure of Okta Platform. It all would be looking into the financial end, so I am not very familiar with it. I do not know the current rate of purchasing, but it is always based on per seat. Okta has a straightforward purchase system compared to Microsoft's separate licenses for cloud.

If a particular organization is too old or with a legacy system, they would continue favoring Microsoft due to familiarity. Okta Platform serves new startups or ventures seeking technological change well. Engage with CSM providers to have an Okta Platform walkthrough.

When only needing application management, Okta Platform suffices, but if requiring identity, device, and email automation handling, assess needs before adoption.

I would rate Okta Platform as an eight.

I did not work on any health industry projects, but I worked with a food industry known as Flashfood. It is one of the global chains in the US and Canada. They opted for Okta Platform.

The one thing is I am a big fan of where people keep things very minimal in the UI. When I go for other solutions, apart from Google, I keep the Google Workspace identity aside because Google is also one of my favorites whenever I am working with identities.

For all the non-service accounts, the realms inside Okta Platform allow for stringent policy implementation, such as IP or geographical restrictions, ensuring uncompromised service accounts. My overall rating for this review is eight out of ten.

As part of Identity and Access Management solutions, or IAM, that many organizations use, Okta Platform is a mature cloud-first IAM platform that uses many single sign-on methods. This is one use case for applications, along with MFA and federation across SaaS and custom applications.

Okta Platform helps to secure access to cloud environments, APIs, containerized workloads, and AI/GenAI services in my architecture by allowing me to create the application in Okta Platform and assign it to the right users and groups, then start configuring the authentication. The first step is multi-factor authentication, which helps secure that only the approved users and groups are allowed to use that application, whether it's an AI application or an on-premise organization application. Another important measure to avoid attackers from gaining users' credentials, such as passwords, involves single sign-on. Additionally, Okta Platform has an adaptive access policy, meaning the user, or employee in this case, does not need to remember the password. Once the administrator configures SSO, the user does not need to go through password authentication; if they are authenticated using MFA, it works directly.

The use of Okta Platform to protect non-human identities in my environment, such as service accounts, machine-to-machine access, or AI agents, is limited since in the organization I work for at Deloitte, we use Microsoft for that. Okta Platform is a great IAM solution, but it is not an IGA solution, short for Identity Governance. The first thing an organization needs to look at is to understand their use case: do they need IAM or IGA or do they only need IAM? Because if it's only IAM, Okta Platform is good, but if they also need IGA to govern non-human identities and others, it is not a solution for that.

Okta Platform helps to address specific industry or regulatory requirements such as healthcare and financial services in my cloud environment. For instance, it benefits the banking industry and the e-commerce industry as well. However, it is available for many industries because it's a very mature and cloud-first IAM platform, making it perfect for companies or startups that are just starting out; they don't need to go through on-premise setups.

What I like about Okta Platform includes its large, pre-built application integration catalog, which is very useful. It also has strong support for the SAML standard and OpenID, commonly referred to as OIDC. Additionally, it offers good API and extensibility for custom use cases and works well in hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The main benefits that Okta Platform brings to the table include strong authentication, which is the first thing, and adaptive MFA, which is very good. For example, if someone tries to log in from a country that is different from the countries they typically sign into, then Okta Platform will ask them to perform another authentication to verify that it is, in fact, the same user. Strong authentication is crucial, along with federation that I used for both cloud and on-premise systems. Federation worked very well, and it facilitates fast SaaS onboarding, with application templates in Okta Platform which make the whole configuration easier. Coming from a Microsoft background, I appreciate how Okta Platform is vendor-agnostic, meaning you do not need to depend on anything; it can work with any identity or identity governance vendor.

I noticed measurable security and operational improvements in my cloud-based workloads since implementing Okta Platform. It is very stable; we didn't have many errors when it came to users trying to log in, which is the first thing. Federation also worked, and that's one use case I can say I used it for. I had a client that was an organization with over 5,000 employees, and they wanted the authentication to go for Microsoft, but through Okta Platform. In reality, what happens is the user tries to log into an Okta Platform application and then gets redirected to Microsoft. That is federation, which refers to redirecting them to a Microsoft page. Once they complete the right authentication, they are redirected back to Okta Platform, making it a successful use case for a large organization in the insurance industry.

While there are many good things about Okta Platform, I would like to see improvements, especially in the IGA capabilities, which are limited compared to more dedicated IGA tools. I believe adding this would give them a real benefit. Additionally, it is not designed as a privileged access management solution, referred to as PAM. As I come from a Microsoft background, I see that Microsoft has both IGA and PAM capabilities, which Okta Platform lacks. Another area for improvement is pricing; it becomes complex and expensive when you add features. I would like to see licensing transparency, possibly some cost control notifications. Lastly, better policy visualization would be nice to have, showing how the policies configured can be represented more visually.

I have been working with Okta Platform for the past year.

When it comes to scalability, I find that Okta Platform's performance is very good. That's the whole point. As soon as you scale up, it often comes with additional costs, but that worked perfectly for us. We managed to implement it for a large organization with many users, so there was no problem; it was very stable.

I would evaluate customer service and technical support for Okta Platform by noting that we did need assistance once when we blocked ourselves out and had to contact Okta Platform support. It took about two days for them to respond, which I think is reasonable. However, this also depends on the support license that you have. We had the minimum one, but still, two days is acceptable as they helped us resolve the issue.

My experience with the deployment of Okta Platform is that the initial setup is straightforward for standard use cases such as fast SSO and MFA. However, complex environments such as hybrid AD, custom applications, or lifecycle automation require careful design and skilled implementation to avoid the technical debt that's often referenced.

Regarding the pricing of Okta Platform, while it is high and complex, I find it does bring a return on investment. The important thing is for companies to evaluate the total cost and not just the base licensing because once you add more features, the total cost increases. This evaluation varies based on the organization's use case; if it's below around 100,000 users, it should be fine. However, if you plan to go beyond that, evaluating the total cost becomes crucial.

I decided to switch to Okta Platform for different use cases for different organizations, particularly at Deloitte. We noticed that many of these organizations that are very Microsoft-heavy, meaning they have many products with Microsoft, find that Microsoft Entra ID, which is an IAM and IGA solution, fits them perfectly because they are already in that Microsoft ecosystem. However, for organizations that are not heavily involved with Microsoft, then Okta Platform is a great solution because they do not need to be dependent on any vendor. It's cloud-first, and so if you need specific IAM without being tied to Microsoft, I think Okta Platform is the best alternative.

Given my experience with Okta Platform and with other technologies, my advice to other organizations considering it is to clearly define if they want IAM versus IGA requirements as early as possible. Okta Platform is not a full IGA platform, and organizations need to understand that coming in. They should also evaluate the total cost and not just the base licensing. Lastly, if they are Microsoft-heavy organizations, they might consider Microsoft Entra ID, but if they are not deeply tied to Microsoft, then definitely go with Okta Platform. I would rate my overall experience with Okta Platform as an eight out of ten.

My main use case for Okta Platform is single sign-on for other applications, and sometimes I also use it for devices with MDMs, and also for workflow, especially for onboarding and offboarding different users.

I use Okta Platform for single sign-on across multiple applications where I integrate multiple applications for single sign-on, and I also integrate an HRM solution for onboarding and offboarding purposes.

Single sign-on is one of the best features Okta Platform offers. Workflows are also good, and device trust is another top feature.

Okta Platform has positively impacted my organization by improving our processes significantly. It eliminates the need for different passwords for various applications compared to single sign-on, which reduces the headache of IT work when offboarding and onboarding users across multiple groups and applications. It is always helpful, and it reduces a lot of work for us.

Implementing Okta has reduced a lot of IT work. I would say it saves hours and hours of work when it comes to single sign-on and the same for user onboarding, offboarding, and group settings.

I would say Okta Platform needs to improve on pricing because now Entra ID is providing this kind of capability built-in with P1. People are moving towards those solutions because it is more integrated, provides single sign-on as well, and can do device trust and certificates. If Okta Platform needs to stay in the market, they should consider bringing down their pricing to maintain or regain business, as there is no comparison now with Entra ID.

I think pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Okta Platform are on the higher side. They need to reduce the pricing if they wish to survive and remain competitive.

I have been using Okta Platform for more than six years now.

Okta Platform is stable, scalable, and reliable.

The customer support for Okta Platform is good.

I did not previously use a different solution before Okta Platform.

I have seen a return on investment with Okta Platform. Implementing this solution saves time and money. By saving engineering time, I am effectively saving money as well, so it saves a lot of hours of manual work.

I did evaluate other options before choosing Okta Platform.

I think the rest of Okta Platform is good. I would say it is more good than Entra, so it is good overall.

I think Okta Platform uses AI for governance and is still working on it. They will reach out in due course. However, as far as single sign-on and such functionalities go, AI is not needed there. If your workflow is good, then everything should be fine.

I find its accuracy and reliability of output to be around eighty to ninety percent.

Okta Platform helps secure access to cloud infrastructure, APIs, containerized workloads, and AI GenAI services in my architecture through API-based and token-based integration with single sign-on for these applications. It is always helpful.

Okta Platform does not protect non-human identities in my environment, such as service accounts or machine-to-machine access, because I use RDP. It provides capabilities there, but not for service accounts or similar.

Okta Platform helps address specific industry or regulatory requirements in healthcare, financial services, or the public sector, and I would say everything is nominal.

I have noticed measurable security and operational improvements in my cloud-based workloads since implementing Okta Platform. It provides secure single sign-on and everything.

Okta Platform is a good platform and has everything needed with more capabilities. The only concern is pricing, so I recommend comparing it with other platforms because you might already have this capability in Entra. I would rate this product nine out of ten.

My previous company did purchase Okta Platform through the AWS Marketplace. When I was in Smarsh, they bought it from the AWS Marketplace and were using the Single Sign-On option with multi-factor authentication to ensure that whenever we tried to log into a system such as Bosch or Concur, the login happened via Okta Platform. Smarsh was primarily using Okta Platform via the AWS Marketplace, whereas  in my current organization is not using Okta Platform from AWS services. We have purchased it directly from the vendor.

In our case, the main use cases for Okta Platform include a Central Identity Provider where multiple SaaS tools are utilized along with many internal apps we have. We configured a Single Sign-On option for everything, eliminating the need for users to remember different logins and information. This was something we configured in Smarsh, where a single login ensured that we were able to log in via Okta Platform only instead of doing individual logins for each screen. Every SSO login used one username and password for the SSO login, followed by an authentication layer. Based on the three-factor authentication combining username, password, and authentication, we were able to perform proper sign-in. This serves primarily for our multiple SaaS tools we have in our organization, as well as certain internal apps we are using.

In our architecture, Okta Platform helps secure access to cloud infrastructure, APIs, and containerized workloads. We have not integrated GenAI in Okta Platform right now, but we have integrated it for our AWS services, which has resulted in positive outcomes. After implementing proper user authentication, we can segregate user access effectively and also trace any malicious or bad actors in the company. Previously, we relied on common credentials for specific tasks, which resulted in downtime. Because of this, we introduced Okta Platform. We were using manual sign-ins with usernames, but when SSO was introduced, it made our lives easier.

We are a FinTech company, and Okta Platform helps us address compliance and regulatory requirements effectively. There are numerous statutory regulations we have to follow, especially when dealing with finance customers such as larger banks, who have specific requirements to fulfill. Okta Platform has significantly aided us in this area as we can track each user, monitoring what they do and even obtaining their geolocation. For banking and finance purposes, it has proven to be very beneficial. Although I am not involved in healthcare or any other domain, I work solely in FinTech.

The best features of Okta Platform include Single Sign-On, which we have utilized. Beyond that, multi-factor authentication has been beneficial. User Lifecycle Management is also a key feature where everything is managed via Okta Platform itself, allowing us multiple ways to set policies and automate provisioning. We can onboard both customers and employees to our internal organization through this.

Based on my use case, I was more involved in the team that managed Okta Platform for other teams. One problem we previously faced was multiple users coming to us with different forgot password issues, as we had an administrator sign-on for the forgot password situation. Before Okta Platform, all our logins were fragmented, leading to a lot of manual toil. After implementing Okta Platform with centralized authentication and policy enforcement on top of the existing sign-in approach, our workflow has become much easier. The best part is that manual toil has almost vanished.

Since implementing Okta Platform, we have noticed measurable security and operational improvements in our cloud-based workloads. The best part is it is very easy to integrate as it has a huge app catalog which streamlines the integration process. I have never encountered issues with failed sign-ins due to external factors. As for our security posture, with MFA enabled, we have significantly reduced the common credential problems we previously faced. Because of all this, we ensure our security positioning meets all compliance standards, and whatever protocols are necessary are followed. Overall, from a security standpoint, it provides a better approach. With its extensive app catalog, integration is seamless; you just purchase it from the vendor and incorporate it into your system.

For Okta Platform to improve, I would suggest enhancing debugging for SAML, as we have faced issues using OIDC or SAML without any user-side tools to identify what is happening. This has become a significant challenge, particularly with SAML logins in the context of AWS usage. If the debugging process is made easier, it would greatly improve our experience. I also find the initial policy setup complex, as it can be a nightmare given its intricacy. Although I do not handle it personally from start to finish, I recall those complicated days vividly.

Okta Platform usage has been around four years in Smarsh and one and a half years at my current organization, totaling approximately five years.

I have not experienced any downtimes or crashes. The only issue arises during SAML errors, which are tough to debug, but overall, I have not seen any downtime. When I check Okta Platform uptime, it seems to be above two nines.

Throughout my experience, I have never noticed any downtime. Reliability is paramount, especially since I work as a Site Reliability Engineer, so both reliability and availability factors are critical. Okta Platform scales efficiently, and I have consistently observed its performance as quite fast, but my experience is only with the cloud solution.

I have not utilized customer service and technical support much. My experience shows that it should be satisfactory. We received helpful responses and resolutions for the few questions we directed to them.

Before choosing Okta Platform, we evaluated Azure where we use Microsoft Intune to register our devices. This alternative is also relatively cheaper for us since it is bundled with Microsoft services and has provided better ROI, but we still use Okta Platform for its effectiveness. We have a partnership with Microsoft in our organization, and they also sell out product in their marketplace. Okta Platform's sign-in features are especially good, offering proper pop-ups when signing in and providing easier access compared to Azure currently.

Before choosing Okta Platform, we mostly used manual logins for everything at my previous service company. When I joined Smarsh, they utilized Okta Platform logins exclusively. We even used shared credentials because we were more of a startup. As the company grew, we adopted Okta Platform based on an architecture suggestion, and this was integrated into our system smoothly without issues. In my current organization, we are using Microsoft login instead of Azure, but both solutions function similarly. However, I find Okta Platform preferable for Mac users.

My experience with the deployment of Okta Platform indicates it is very easy to integrate; however, the configuration of policies is quite complex. We had to troubleshoot SAML assertion issues during quite a bit of integration, which was painful. The token expiration and refresh process also require careful handling as we faced numerous token expiration notifications through Slack.

The initial setup process can feel overwhelming since while integrating Okta Platform is easy with the existing catalog, the complexity arises during policy configuration, which requires extensive research and adjustments. This is something that often feels problematic. Aside from that, the cloud solution integrates relatively smoothly; most challenges arise from policy settings.

We did not use an integrator, reseller, or consultant for the integration process. Our internal team performed most integrations with minimal external assistance, relying primarily on the documentation provided after purchasing the solution. The documentation is straightforward and manageable, and we only needed to contact the support team a couple of times with questions. Overall, it was not a major issue.

If I want to quantify the return on investment with Okta Platform, I have certain metrics. It has reduced our login-related support tickets significantly, providing us with better visibility and reducing manual toil, which has almost been eliminated. Previously, we conducted numerous audits, but now the admin UI provides all necessary details about what, where, and how events occurred. Employee onboarding used to be a major pain point, but the automation Okta Platform provides for creating user accounts across various apps or SaaS tools has made our life much easier. Audit processes have also become simpler, especially in finance where compliance is critical. This is something most people experience with Okta Platform; it undoubtedly has a positive impact.

Okta Platform is expensive. At scale, Okta Platform is costly. There is no question about that. However, I feel it offers quality. While it is not entirely justified, it is somewhere between 70-80% justified in terms of pricing.

Okta Platform is a good solution to discuss. When advising other companies considering Okta Platform, I recommend analyzing the cost first, as it is a critical metric. For organizations with a large user base, it is essential to explore and understand potential expenses associated with Okta Platform. The pricing can be quite high for large-scale usage, so expenses should be considered carefully before committing to Okta Platform. Services are generally good, and no product is flawless, so there will be notable strengths and weaknesses to consider, such as token and SAML troubleshooting issues. With our company's tuned MFA, we have alleviated many issues, but without it, problems can arise for several employees. Okta Platform is not deployed on-premise; everything is on the cloud. I would rate this review as an 8 out of 10.

We had a bunch of Active Directory servers, Windows Active Directory servers on-premises. We did an Okta Platform agent installation on those servers to synchronize the identities from Active Directory to Okta Platform. We then leveraged that integration and configured it as an Identity and Access Management and SSO solution.

I used Okta Platform as Identity and Access Management, which served as the source of truth for every single application entitlement and role-based access. Role-based access was a particularly important feature. Multi-Factor Authentication was essential, and I am using and consuming a lot of those even today for a couple of applications, though I am not managing that particular Okta Platform instance as it is managed by a third party. Identity and Access Management, Multi-Factor Authentication, role-based access, and SSO were all critical components, serving as the source of truth for the entire application footprint. I also used Okta Platform for Zero Trust Network Access on the consumer side, which was a Palo Alto engine that I integrated with Okta Platform.

Okta Platform is a SaaS service, not something which you have to host yourself on-premises. Of course, you need agents to synchronize if you are already moving from a traditional on-premises identity-based architecture. Okta Platform is SaaS-based. While there are competitors such as Ping Identity, which used to be a great one but has since been acquired, and Microsoft Entra, which does all of it as well, Okta Platform has a lot of advantages. Okta Platform has very rich integration capabilities with a lot of other vendors, including deep integration capabilities with Zscaler, CrowdStrike, most of the ZTNA vendors, and CASB vendors. The number of applications that you can natively integrate with it out of the box is quite huge. Another advantage is the risk-based authentication capability, where Okta Platform gives you the capability to have step-up authentication based upon superhuman activity or unusual login detections. MFA is fairly seamless, and while it is not something that Okta Platform is doing alone as others are doing it as well, Okta Platform is stable with no issues with downtime or maintenance. I never had any challenges with that. The rich integrations are a significant advantage.

Context-awareness is more about not just the username or service principals, but also depends upon where and how that particular user is accessing things from. If a particular user changes the endpoint from which they are trying to log in or changes location quite abruptly within a span of few minutes, which is superhuman activity, then that additional context gets captured. You get a true risk-based authentication wherein you have to satisfy more authentication parameters or factors before you can actually get access to the resource.

At the same time, you can also do a lot of conditional access things where if there is a certain level of risk associated with that particular authenticated session, then you can actually restrict the level of access that that particular user can have so that you do not penalize the user just because some session is potentially risky. You can let the user have the ability to do at least the basic work or remediate things. Okta Platform is a full-blown Identity and Access Management solution, so it does send out attributes which can be passed from the identity to the service principle, which is your application. Depending upon that, you can let the application know that this particular user, because it is risky, is not going to be able to access the usual things, but maybe restrict the access. This is completely based upon the context of that particular user's authentication session.

Okta Platform does what it promises that it does. It is certainly all cloud-based as a SaaS solution. For enterprises which really prefer to have their own identity within their own perimeter, Okta Platform might not be the solution they might look for. Of course, there are ways you can get your dedicated tenant, especially for governments and federal agencies and all of those things. I have not tried those use cases. I think Okta Platform is the best of the class and appears consistently at the top of the Gartner report and other research.

Based on the use cases I had, I was fairly happy with it. The PAM capabilities and attribute-based access controls, ABAC, represent a new paradigm. How practical that is for enterprises to deploy largely depends upon the use cases. There is always room for improvement, and it is not just for Okta Platform but typically for every single customer identity provider. There are a lot of other things the biometric and FIDO and all of those which can certainly be improved. However, that is more of a technological constraint rather than the vendor itself.

I have experience working on Okta Platform Identity and Access Management and Secure Server Access. The earliest I remember was back in 2019.

Okta Platform is stable with no issues with downtime or maintenance. I never had any challenges with stability.

Scalability is handled because Okta Platform is a SaaS solution, so it is infinitely scalable. I have account managers that get assigned to the account who make sure that the underlying infrastructure is there to support the need for a lot of user identities that will be getting deployed. I never had any outages. I would rate it like eight or nine.

Support is great. You get in-line support by just logging into it. I never faced a lot of challenges. There were one or two instances where the MFA was a bit slow, but they took care of it very quickly.

Positive

The earliest I remember was back in 2019 when I first worked on Okta Platform doing integrations with Zscaler Private Access and Zscaler Internet Access. We had a bunch of Active Directory servers, Windows Active Directory servers on-premises, and we did an Okta Platform agent installation on those servers to synchronize the identities from Active Directory to Okta Platform. I then leveraged that integration and configured it as an Identity and Access Management and SSO solution.

Right now I am not using Okta Platform. I am currently using Entra ID, but I was a customer of Okta Platform until six or seven months ago.

The initial setup is really straightforward. You get a tenant and you get in-line help. The documentation is very feature-rich. It is really straightforward. It takes time depending upon the number of identity providers that you need to integrate with, especially if you are doing a brownfield deployment. For a greenfield deployment, you just get a tenant assigned and start configuring it. It does not take a lot of time.

I have not been asked about implementation teams. I am not even sure if that is a standard practice because Okta Platform sits in its own tenant and I do not think there is anything there.

The reason why I purchased Okta Platform was primarily to centralize Identity and Access Management because it was all scattered. From the identity and access governance standpoint, it made sense to not rely on scattered identity providers but to actually have a single centralized IDP. The ROI comes not from Okta Platform itself, of course, the platform enables it, but the thought process that goes into having all of the identities stored in one single tool, which eases a lot of your entitlements. You do not have to go into different places and give people entitlements. The identity and access governance timeline shortens drastically. Okta Platform has its own IAG as well, which is in-built. If you are a small or mid-sized company, you do not need to have a dedicated IAG and all of those things. Okta Platform can work alone. You can eliminate a lot of inconsistencies and sprawls with your existing tool stack if you move into this. Of course, it is true for Entra ID as well, but with Okta Platform, I think it is one solution that can take care of most of your identity and access related needs.

You get a real value for your money. Whatever amount you spend, you get a bang for it. Okta Platform is decently priced. It is certainly not cheap, but the features that you get, the functionality that you get, and whatever use cases that you have, it definitely satisfies those. There are no hidden things there. Once you have deployed it, they do not ask you for buying other things for integration or just to take care of your use cases. I think they are selling whatever is worth it if you are putting it in.

The primary competitors I would think are Azure Entra ID. Azure Entra ID is one of the closest competitors. Both cater to different use cases. Based upon the use cases that I had, there were not a lot where one could do and the other could not. Both are in the same realm.

Based on the use cases I had, I was fairly happy with it. The IAG, Identity and Access Governance, is one of the best features. You can use that for taking care of a lot of your entitlements. If there are people who are getting onboarded, such as bulk users getting onboarded which is true for most of the IT services industries where there are hundreds of people joining every week, and people getting offboarded, those automated lifecycle policies automate the entire thing. It not just removes or suspends your identities, but it also conveys it to the downstream applications. It is one of the best things that they introduced a couple of years ago. I would give Okta Platform an overall rating of nine out of ten.