Okta Platform Reviews

I work for one of Norway's largest employers with 50,000 employees. This is Norway's largest retail chain and we use it for 30,000 workers in retail, 15,000 in warehousing, and 5,000 in the corporate environment. For all of these, onboarding is automated to the HR and we have an old CA, which is now called the Broadcom Identity Management Solution for provisioning into Okta Workforce Identity. In this solution, we take those 50,000 identities and we've now built a B2B portal so that vendors, producers of the stuff that is sold in these retail chains, can log on and do things like plan their shipments, have the accounting done, et cetera, et cetera. So there are about maybe 20,000 people, a total of 70,000 people in this identity space. Last but not least, is the PAM solution. So we have maybe 300 IT staff on shore and we have maybe 600 offshore. I haven't done the latest count, but around 1000 IT workers authenticate through Okta Workforce Identity but are then given access to the PAM solution because the PAM solution protects both our cloud environment and our on-prem environment. We use the cloud to get into the on-prem.

First of all, the solution is very simple. It's actually made for smaller companies. So working with it, I wouldn't say that anyone could do it, but everything can be expressed as groups and rules. 

The drawback of this solution is that in our shops, many staff members sometimes have to be borrowed from one shop to another and the solution does not really support having multiple roles. The user experience we would like to have when a person works in shop A which pays their salary is that they should have access to pretty much everything. Maybe you have somebody who is a manager in that shop A, he should be able to order new wear, he should be able to change the pricing, he should be able to empty the cash registry, and ship it to the bank. But when for instance, in COVID, people had to fill in for people in shops where a lot of people were sick, then they had to actually use user accounts of people that work in shop B. If you were employed in shop A, you could not work in shop B without borrowing somebody else's user ID and password. Which is really bad. We haven't been able to work around that and Okta Workforce Identity does not have a solution for it.

We are now piloting their identity governance solution. Obviously, it's easy to give somebody access, give them an account, and give them roles, but it's hard to maintain that. For example, if you moved from, say working in a shop to working in a warehouse. But why do you still have all this shop access? The solution has until now not had anything to really support the process of taking away access. But now we are in a better release program of Okta's identity governance solution. Although it's very basic, the solution has started on a journey, but identity governance is something that Okta Workforce Identity really needs to improve.

The ability or the options in the solution for changing the look and feel are not good enough because in our partner portal, essentially what they have is an ugly admin interface. The admin interface is good enough for us technical people because that's all we need. We work with the product and we're able to see the data but when it comes to presenting the service portal, Okta Workforce Identity does not have any capabilities really for making it look pretty. 

To add branding and different graphical user interface elements than Okta basic for essentially delegated admin for the business-to-business portal is horrifying because you're essentially using the tech admin. The only option we had and used, was to take the tech admin console and strip it. so that a vendor that has some goods that are sold in the shops, when they want to add a user on their side, say a driver or a packer on their side who should know how much they've packed in a truck to come to our warehouse, then the user interface that this vendor is using, these functional people will then have to use an extremely basic user interface.

I have been using the solution for three years.

The stability is fantastic and has never been down. I give the stability a ten out of ten.

The solution's cloud environment seems to be highly scalable. We haven't found any bottlenecks there. The only bottlenecks we found are within our own infrastructure.

The customer support guy for Okta in Europe, a relationship manager, used to be a friend of mine when I lived in Sydney, Australia. He worked for Sun Microsystems systems back then. Sun Microsystems was the best product in the IT industry. Now Okta Workforce Identity is the best in the identity industry. The solution is not perfect because it's meant to be high volume, simple functionality, and all the basics first. The point is they're now adding functionality and this is where the EMEA lead, he's been in this industry for 20 years just like me. And he's so good. The team that he has, again, the tech team that they have is fabulous. The tech team is on par with maybe the absolutely best tech team that I've ever experienced with CyberArk, but the Okta guys are brilliant.

Previous to using Okta Workforce Identity we used Oracle Access Manager and it was horrible. Oracle Access Manager didn't scale, it had a lot of bugs, and it was expensive. Oracle was charging obscene license fees for a product that was rubbish.

The initial setup is very easy. Building a new environment is easy because nobody is better than Okta Workforce Identity when it comes to deployment. I give the setup a ten out of ten for ease.

The implementation was completed in-house by our two engineers.

I give the solution an eight out of ten for return on investment. I would not give the solution a ten because our brand is hurting a little bit by having these non-customizable external interfaces. 

The licensing is per user per month and includes full technical support. I give the pricing a six out of ten. It's not a bad product for a high price like Oracle is. It's a good product for a fair price but It's not cheap.

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

The thing is you can build a deployment in a day. So creating a new environment is done overnight, 24 hours. But if you say, how long does it take for us to build the connection so that CA was able to give us the data we needed to fill the roles in the solution, and then get provisioning up to work with Azure AD, and the main applications, that took us six months. Not because of Okta Workforce Identity but because of all these interfaces. That's always the killer with identity implementations. The interfaces you need to speak with to get your source, your HR data, or partner data. Maybe the best example is the partner portal. That took one year but that was more to get what's the functionality, what's the user experience. Okta Workforce Identity for engineers is a pretty solution. 

There are over 70,000 people using this solution.

We also use Thycotic Secret Server for privileged access management. So for all the tech people that need to say take backup our ERP, warehousing applications or put a new feature in the warehousing applications or upgrade the point of sale system, all those tech people get access to Thycotic Secret Server. I think there are 1000 that are actually employed onshore and offshore by my employer. And another 1000 that are tech people that maintain switches, operating technology kind of equipment. So about 2000 people have Thycotic accounts. But 70,000 have user accounts and user access. With Okta Workforce Identity everything is included with the licensing fee. If you've ever seen an Oracle licensing agreement there are loopholes in there and so you end up paying for additional items above the Access Manager, for example, you also pay for the database that it runs on. With Okta Workforce Identity it's simple. You get what you pay for. No more, no less.

I understand that Okta Workforce Identity has chosen to go for simplicity first. And that complex functionality, which we, being a very large customer... There are not many like us. We have more difficult requirements than most. But to do the simple things so well that we don't have to worry about them means we can focus on the last 10% of requirements. That will always be hard. And that's why I think the solution does 90% of the requirements so well that you need to do every day, so we can focus on the remaining 10%, which may not even be an Okta Workforce Identity problem. It is just a problem that you end up with when you have a very large business with a user portfolio that is everything from server admin from India to a trucking company that needs access to the warehousing doors in another part of the world. Okta Workforce Identity from an access management point of view is a nine out of ten.

We use Okta for identity and access management for our internal services, cloud services or applications (SaaS). We have a hybrid setup since we have a global workforce, so we unify our IAM services.

The most useful features of Okta for my organization are identity and access management, single sign-on, and the flexibility for hybrid setups. 

Okta enables multi-factor authentication, which enhances security, especially for SaaS applications. The integration capabilities of Okta are very flexible, with multiple protocols that can be integrated, especially for single sign-on. Any API can also be added, making it mature in terms of integrating with other identity providers, particularly Active Directory or Azure Entra ID.

Okta should have at least a local presense for countries that align with or comply with GDPR or data sovereignty, so there are no compliance or audit questions. There are integration issues with Office 365; such as groups not updating correctly in Okta. Okta should work on resolving them.

I have been in the organization for one year, and it has been more than three years now that Okta has been used.

As long as you have Internet connection, there are no issues with the stability. 

Okta is scalable and reliable, with no downtime or service disruption encountered over the years.

My team contacts Okta support for increased integration requirements. They are very supportive; they just open a ticket, and they support us very professionally.

Positive

The setup process is pretty straight-forward, having experience with different single sign-on (SSO) and identity access management, I can manage the setup process with ease. Okta provides clear guidelines and documentations as well.

Pricing for Okta is reasonably not that much, however,  I don't have access to the commercial aspect.

I recommend evaluating your environment first. If you have a global workforce or you need flexibility and higher visibility on your identity and access management (IAM) and SSO, Okta is a good solution. My total rating for Okta is ten out of ten.

The solution is used to eliminate a VPN, provide identity authentication, and single sign-on (SSO). We use Zscaler authentication to manage endpoint logins, endpoint report management, and single sign-on for applications.

The most valuable feature is the identity access authentication.

There is a need for Okta to provide an end-to-end solution without needing a separate product like Zscaler for multifactor authentication. Additionally, Okta should enhance its endpoint defensive capabilities, as we currently use BeyondTrust for Elevator Access Management.

I have been working with Okta Workforce Identity for four years.

The solution is rated as a nine in terms of stability.

Okta is not designed fully for scalability.

Okta provides good support. While we are unable to have it in-house, we can raise a ticket, and they support us well.

Positive

We utilize Okta and Zscaler for multifactor authentication.

The setup process is very user-friendly and has no issues.

Our internal team underwent training materials and configured the implementation successfully.

The pricing is very high, which is an area for improvement.

I recommend Okta Workforce Identity to others, particularly for mid-sized and large enterprises.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

We used the solution for domain control and password management. In my previous company, they had 40 different products. We used Okta for single sign-on management.

AuthO is a highly customizable access management tool for applications. When I want to integrate an application and enable SSO, it provides a single-click operation. It is very easy. Okta enables us to integrate with customers' domains quickly. It's one of the biggest advantages. The development team can easily pull out APIs and quickly code for identity management.

It also provides multifactor authentication features. The tool helps improve our security and productivity. We can easily pull up the APIs and integrate them quickly. We would have had to build our own solution if not for Okta. Okta has saved us tons of money by removing the pain of building a tool. It is easy to use.

We had some implementation issues.

I have been using the solution for about three years.

The tool is scalable.

The support was very good.

Positive

It is a SaaS product. It took us less than a month to implement the solution in our organization. However, it took a little longer for us to deploy the tool for our customers because we had to do it product by product. We deployed it for our customers in three to four months.

We paid a license fee for our own use. For the customers’ use cases, we had an OEM model and paid a small percentage of the fee. We had a very nice Okta team. The overall cost was not bad.

I am working with Keeper in my current organization. The business case is different. I'm not looking at integrating with customer's domains or products. I use Keeper primarily for personal use cases. Okta is a very good product. Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.

In Okta Customer Identity, I primarily respond to application handling with around three thousand applications. This includes handling internal applications for permanent employees and third-party applications for contractors. I also work on certification renewal annually and the setup of SSO pages to enhance security.

The most valuable aspect of Okta Customer Identity is the server's reliability, especially for directory and node management. I set up different directories for traffic redirection, ensuring backup when a data center faces issues and maintaining seamless operations.

There is room for Okta Customer Identity to improve by increasing the reliability for the server end, creating more directories, and focusing on internal users rather than external or contract-based ones. Additionally, extending idle session times from ten milliseconds to at least forty-five seconds would be beneficial. It is also suggested that patches be applied annually rather than quarterly.

I have been working with Okta Customer Identity for nine months.

I would rate the stability of Okta Customer Identity as eight. It has allowed us to manage identity signals effectively, though some customers are resistant to certain procedures, making stability slightly challenging.

I rate the scalability of Okta at nine. I have a clear understanding of the architecture and processes involved, which allows for effective scaling to manage user privileges, application logins, and leveraging tools like Splunk for efficient data management.

We have a strong internal support system including application support, data center, and IDM teams. However, direct interaction with Okta's technical support is minimal as we typically manage internally.

Positive

Before using Okta Customer Identity, I did not utilize a different solution for these use cases.

The initial setup of Okta Customer Identity took about five hours and required a team of three.

We needed three people for deployment and now require about four people for maintenance, including rotations among five to six employees.

The pricing for Okta Customer Identity is very economical. It is much cheaper compared to Oracle Access Manager, and the company focuses on internal training to mitigate additional certification costs.

We evaluated Microsoft Azure as another option, but both Okta and Azure are quite similar in functionality.

Overall, I rate Okta Customer Identity as nine. Although there are some areas of improvement, its pricing and scalability make it a preferred choice for managing user identity and applications.

I use the solution in my company for its single sign-on capabilities and for secure authentication.

The feature I like the most above the product stems from the fact that the tool allows for integrations. One can integrate multiple applications with the product's single sign-on capabilities, meaning with a single username and password, you can access multiple applications. If you have 50 applications, then you need not provide a y different username and password to log individually into each application. With the single sign-on capabilities, you can log in to multiple applications using Okta Workforce Identity. Okta Workforce Identity can be used to deal with configurations and several integrations. One can access multiple applications without having to provide multiple usernames and passwords. You don't need to remember multiple usernames and passwords when you have Okta Workforce Identity. Okta Workforce Identity also provides security to its users by providing MFA features. There are also a lot of workflows available in the product, which can be beneficial for users.

The high cost of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required.

I have been using Okta Workforce Identity for a few months. I have just started to work with the product, and so I don't have much exposure to it.

Stability-wise, I feel it is one of the top most products in the market. There are very few products in the market, like the ones from Azure which are similar to Okta, which offers some of the best solutions in the market.

It is a scalable solution. For each and every feature that our company uses in the product, there is a need to make payment to Okta, making the solution costly.

The solution's technical support is good.

I have not done the product's initial setup phase.

It is always beneficial to use the product since, with the single sign-on feature, users can also provide and get access via mobile app. If you are not able to access the product, you can do certain configurations with the help of automation. Everything is possible in the product with the help of its automation tools and monitoring policies.

The product's price is high. For each feature, a certain payment is required.

The product helps improve our company's employee onboarding process because the solution has integrations with multiple applications.

The single sign on capabilities of the product is one of the best, especially in terms of its ability related to configurations.

The product has an in-built MFA feature. When someone tries to sign in, the product asks for the authentication ID.

I recommend the product to others. It is one of the best products in the market. There are some people who use SailPoint instead of Okta Workforce Identity.

I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

I use the solution mostly to integrate into Active Directory to get MFA and other IAM features. In Okta, we can get features similar to those in Active Directory. We also use the tool for authorization and other zero-trust authentication.

We can integrate two-factor authentication with the applications. Two-factor authentication is used for mobile applications like OneDrive.

The product must be provided for free. We cannot substantiate the cost with the features provided by the tool. Microsoft provides similar features for free. I don’t see any extra features in Okta.

I have been using the solution for more than five to ten years.

The tool is not free. However, Microsoft is free. So, people prefer Microsoft.

If we wanted to access the Azure portal or any other portal, we used to scan with Authenticator. Once it was approved, we accessed the portals. The product is equivalent to Microsoft’s solution. I used Duo instead of Authenticator to authorize applications. People use Conditional Access Policy. People generally prefer Microsoft because it is free. I will recommend the tool to others. Our recommendations are based on the customer’s requirements, bandwidth, and budget. Overall, I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

I am just an end user of the product, so I don't know how the product is used in remote force management in our company. I use the product to help me log on to our company's security systems.

When I was traveling, I could get my OTPs through the tool's app, through my cell phone number or via an SMS,which makes it a flexible product. The tool is helpful even in areas involving emails. It is possible to use the product in another country and add an extra layer of security to it, proving that it can be a really secure platform.

I use the tool at a low level, so it does what I need it to do for me.

The product does not offer enough integration capabilities. I want the tool to provide more integration capabilities in the future.

I have been using Okta Workforce Identity for two years.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

It is an easily scalable solution. When it comes to the scalability features, the product has many options for people in different countries, offices, and remote locations.

I believe that there are around 1,500 users of the tool in my company.

I did contact the product's support team when my password got locked out. I could even reset the whole password from Okta easily through the tool's internal app. The support team was good.

The product's initial setup phase is straightforward.

The solution is deployed on the cloud since it is used at a company-wide level in South Africa.

Though I am not sure, I feel that during the implementation phase, my company did seek the help of a consultant and our organization's in-house team.

In terms of benefits offered by the product, I can say that the tool has centralized our company's security and internal policies while ensuring that we stay compliant so that the users stay protected. With the product in place, no phishing attacks or any other types of attacks can cause a problem since it is a secure platform.

Though I don't know about the licensing model of the product, I wouldn't be surprised if Okta offers a per user license subscription model.

The employee onboarding process is okay if you use Okta Workforce Identity.

The SSO feature offered by the product is good, easy to use, and user-friendly. The tool also has a password manager as well.

The tool's MFA part comes as one of the strongest features of the product.

I feel that it is a good platform with a good security layer, especially when you are scaling out your business, and you have to manage a lot of areas.

I ate the tool a ten out of ten.