We use it for API authentication, on-premises clusters as well as cluster access, and cloud cluster access.
Senior Director - Principal Architect at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Is compatible and interoperable, and easy to implement, learn, and scale
Pros and Cons
- "One of the features that I have found to be very valuable is its interoperability and compatibility with all types of resources, whether it's networking, infrastructure, or applications. That is, it is compatible as well as interoperable, as far as the federated authentication is concerned."
- "It's not compatible with on-premises installations, unless you host it as a SaaS. We were not able to do that. For example, imagine a scenario where the cloud is not available. Then, Okta will not work for you. That use case will readily fail because it doesn't have an on-premises installation that you can use to authenticate or provide identity and access management. If you have a purely on-premises solution that is not connected to the internet, then this will not work. This is one area that can be improved."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
We did not have a unified mechanism for accessing resources or a secure way of accessing resources, and Okta solved that problem for us.
What is most valuable?
One of the features that I have found to be very valuable is its interoperability and compatibility with all types of resources, whether it's networking, infrastructure, or applications. That is, it is compatible as well as interoperable, as far as the federated authentication is concerned.
What needs improvement?
It's not compatible with on-premises installations, unless you host it as a SaaS. We were not able to do that. For example, imagine a scenario where the cloud is not available. Then, Okta will not work for you. That use case will readily fail because it doesn't have an on-premises installation that you can use to authenticate or provide identity and access management. If you have a purely on-premises solution that is not connected to the internet, then this will not work. This is one area that can be improved.
I would also like to see more intelligent analysis of the identity and access management from Okta.
Buyer's Guide
Okta Workforce Identity
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Okta Workforce Identity. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using it for the last seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is fairly stable. However, because it's a SaaS solution, it needs to have connectivity. If the connectivity is down, then Okta Workforce Identity will be down as well.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is one of the pluses that Okta has. It's easily scalable, both horizontally and vertically.
Right now, we have about 3,500 users.
How are customer service and support?
There was one minor hiccup with technical support, but other than that, the support has been pretty good. I would give them a nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used ForgeRock, and we switched to Okta mainly because of the flexibility that Okta provides.
ForgeRock requires on-premises maintenance. Because most of our applications are now on the cloud, Okta is more user-friendly in that sense.
A couple of years ago, it was 70/30, 70 being on-premises. That's why ForgeRock was the choice. However, it's flipped now to 30/70, and Okta is more useful.
We still use ForgeRock because you can do an on-premises hosting for ForgeRock. Okta doesn't have that capability.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very straightforward; it's a very simple setup. There are some areas for which you need some skills. If you have an SOP, you can just follow it. I would give it a four out of five.
We have three people assigned to the solution for deployment and maintenance.
What about the implementation team?
We deployed it using an in-house team. The initial setup did not take much time; it took about one to three weeks.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Okta has fairly competitive pricing.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated some native cloud services, like AWS and Azure before choosing Okta Workforce Identity.
We also looked at IBM ISAM, IBM Security Access Management, and Oracle ISAM, but they're very rigid products. That's why we went for Okta. They don't have any flexibility, and the cost was also very high compared to that for Okta.
What other advice do I have?
If your use case is multi-cloud data centers and hybrid cloud architecture, Okta is a solution to go to. It's fairly easy to implement as well. It has federated identity and access management, and it works very well with any type of identification authentication. However, if you have on-premises data centers where there are connectivity problems, then it would be better to avoid Okta.
I would rate Okta Workforce Identity at eight on a scale from one to ten because I've found it easy to implement and easy to learn. That is, the onboarding or the learning curve is less. It also has federated identity and access management mechanisms, where you can apply the various resources and workloads that you have. Also, it has very good interoperability and compatibility. It can easily scale too.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Access Integration Engineer at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Highly scalable, good support, and useful user management
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup of Okta Workforce Identity is straightforward. I was able to get an environment ready within half a day."
- "Okta Workforce Identity could improve provisioning it can be made simpler."
What is our primary use case?
I am using Okta Workforce Identity for identity access management.
How has it helped my organization?
Okta Workforce Identity has helped improve our organization by providing customer identity management, customer onboarding, customer identity stores, workforce provisioning. Additionally, single sign-on is one of the primary functions that has been a benefit.
What needs improvement?
Okta Workforce Identity could improve provisioning it can be made simpler.
They are implementing in one of the newer releases certification, attestation, and some role-mining abilities, but I don't know how far along that's going to be. That's a statement that they said they are going to have in the future.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Okta Workforce Identity for approximately three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Okta Workforce Identity is scalable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Okta Workforce Identity is great. It's a SaaS solution the scalability is one of the built-in expectations with it. It can scale, even though I don't scale it personally with any of the companies I worked with, it can potentially scale to support millions. It's easily scalable.
How are customer service and support?
I rate the support from Okta Workforce Identity a four out of five.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have previously used Oracle Access Management, Microsoft Azure Active Directory, and ADFS. Those would be the major ones. I've been introduced to small ones, such as PingFederate, but I never used those heavily.
We switched solutions because of the architectural design. We chose Okta Workforce Identity for external customers, it's a customer identity platform that we decided to go with.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Okta Workforce Identity is straightforward. I was able to get an environment ready within half a day.
I rate the initial setup experience of Okta Workforce Identity a four out of five.
What about the implementation team?
I have used an integrator and have done the implementation myself for Okta Workforce Identity.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Okta Workforce Identity scales up by the user, and then by the service that you're purchasing.
The solution is not the cheapest but not the most expensive. They are in the middle rating.
I rate the price of Okta Workforce Identity a three out of five.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Okta Workforce Identity an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Okta Workforce Identity
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Okta Workforce Identity. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Java Developer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
It's easy to integrate with other solutions
Pros and Cons
- "Okta integrates well with other solutions. Once you have integrated an application into Okta and onboarded a user, they will be onboarded for just-in-time provisioning."
- "The error logging could be improved. Okta doesn't provide enough details when you are troubleshooting an issue. It's often difficult to fix it from our end, so we always need additional support from Okta."
What is our primary use case?
Our organization only uses Okta for single sign-on. Everybody is working from home, so we need a multi-factor authentication solution for remote users. We have around 70,000 users.
What is most valuable?
Okta integrates well with other solutions. Once you have integrated an application into Okta and onboarded a user, they will be onboarded for just-in-time provisioning.
What needs improvement?
The error logging could be improved. Okta doesn't provide enough details when you are troubleshooting an issue. It's often difficult to fix it from our end, so we always need additional support from Okta.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have worked with Okta for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate Okta six out of 10 for stability. We don't see many bugs, but the product doesn't support some of our custom requirements. We have to submit feature requests that they implement later.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate Okta six out of 10 for scalability. In January, they were doing something on their side, and a cell was down. The US was completely down, and most users had problems logging into. Okta confirmed that auto-scaling was not happening properly from their end.
How are customer service and support?
I rate Okta support eight out of 10.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
The company used RSA before I joined. I believe they switched because they preferred a SaaS platform, and RSA was late to adopt this model. RSA is excellent as an on-prem solution, but they didn't transition to the cloud until later.
How was the initial setup?
I rate Okta eight out of 10 for ease of setup. It's a SaaS product. You can configure it in a few hours. It takes additional time if you use on-prem agents. Active Directory has some other agents that must be integrated. It will take additional time. Otherwise, it won't take much time. You need three people at most to deploy it. Usually, one person deploys the solution, and two other people are on standby.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Okta Workforce Identity eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Microsoft Azure Engineer at Sycomp
User-friendly with a nice GUI and helps to streamline multifactor authentication
Pros and Cons
- "The solution can scale very well."
- "Support could be a bit faster."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution for our single sign-on applications. It resolves password issues.
We use it for authentication and 90% of our SaaS app.
We use it for on and off-boarding users. It syncs with our on-premises master directory to set them up and take them off.
What is most valuable?
We like that the solution helps us to streamline multifactor authentication.
It's got great SSO and good provisioning and de-provisioning.
The product is easy to set up.
It is stable.
The solution can scale very well.
What needs improvement?
I've been pleased with its capabilities overall.
Support could be a bit faster.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. I'd rate its reliability ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's extremely scalable. It'd rate the solution's ease of expansion ten out of ten.
We have 1500 users on the solution currently.
How are customer service and support?
Support is good. However, sometimes it takes them a bit longer to deal with issues.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used a different solution. We moved to Okta as the GUI is very user-friendly, and the solution is simple to use.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very easy. It's not complex.
The deployment took a matter of three to four days for our hybrid setup.
What about the implementation team?
K+Okta's team helped us deploy the solution. They made it very easy.
What was our ROI?
We have gotten an ROI in terms of time savings. We've seen 20% to 30% ROI, as it is saving us a lot of time.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is a bit expensive. I'd rate it four out of ten in terms of affordability. It's a bit more expensive than our older solution.
Okta charges per user, and that can make it costly if you are a big company.
What other advice do I have?
We are customers and end-users.
I'm using the latest version of the solution.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. The pricing is a bit high, and they do charge per user. There are other options that are a bit less expensive.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Manager, Identity Management Services at Verisk Analytics
Increased user satisfaction through improved provisioning times and more reliable processes but should have Integration with the user provisioning infrastructure
Pros and Cons
- "Enabled MFA to access federated applications as well as increased user satisfaction through improved provisioning times and more reliable processes."
- "SSO and MFA for improved end-user experience, and protection against password spray attacks, account password self-service."
What is our primary use case?
SSO and MFA: To extend Identity Authentication on the existing IAM identity and account operations to the multiple domains for administrative and help desk personnel. Improve consistency of the identity management processes across the organization and improve compliance with governance mandates.
The access management with Okta revolves around the establishment of a single authentication store (reducing the number of accounts), which will allow the migration of existing applications to federations, or a common identity store. It will also establish a suite of centralized authentication services that can be used for future applications and systems platforms.
How has it helped my organization?
- Enabled MFA to access federated applications as well as increased user satisfaction through improved provisioning times and more reliable processes.
- Reduced costs associated with paying for AD accounts for customers who use corporate applications (currently 4000+ customer IDs exist within the AD forest – these require a license at a substantial cost to the organization).
- Increased productivity through centralization of IAM Authentication - Authorization operations to a single tool (ISIM), and better operational resiliency with distributed administration (Common tasks can now be handled by a more diverse set of individuals across the organization.
What is most valuable?
SSO and MFA for improved end-user experience, and protection against password spray attacks, account password self-service. Extend Identity Authentication and authorization management operations. Extend the existing IAM identity and account operations to divisional administrative and help desk personnel. This improves the consistency of the identity management processes across the organization. Obfuscating the AD account infrastructure from the application infrastructure to reduce risk and vulnerabilities associated with tying externally facing applications to corporate accounts.
What needs improvement?
- Passwordless authentication.
- Integration with the user provisioning infrastructure to track all entitlement changes; simplify the modeling of the role and access definitions at every stage of the user life cycle.
- Automation of the entire entitlement and role review process, in alignment with business needs and requirements as stated by business leaders and managers.
- Oversight in the form of dashboards reconciling and centralizing information for immediate insight into the status of access reviews and certification processes.
For how long have I used the solution?
3 years.
How are customer service and technical support?
They work really well.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not have another access management solution in place prior to implementing.
How was the initial setup?
It was straightforward for access management with SSO and MFA. It was complex to implement password synchronization between AD domains.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented directly with the solutions provider.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated IBM Access Manager but decided to go with a cloud-based product.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IT Security Manager at Sara
Provides a very useful single sign-on feature for all our applications
Pros and Cons
- "Having a single sign-on to all our applications."
- "You can't hide the device when you're checking logs."
What is our primary use case?
My primary use case is to have a single sign-on and to have identity access management. I'm the team management manager and we are customers of Okta.
What is most valuable?
Having a single sign-on to all our applications.
What needs improvement?
With the device applications, when you are checking the logs, you can't hide the device and that's a feature that's missing. I'd like to see MDM source added.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used this solution for a year.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is good on scalability and stability.
How are customer service and technical support?
The company has very good tehnical support and they respond quickly.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup wasn't so easy but it wasn't too complex either. We had assistance from Okta for the installation. Implementation didn't take long, maybe two or three days but we had some issues with some applications, and we had to postpone our deployment for about two months because of that. There's no maintenance required. We have about 300 users dealing with the solution in the company and it's used daily. We have no plans to increase usage for now.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I think the approximate cost for the license is somewhere between $20,000-$21,000 a year and that includes everything.
What other advice do I have?
I think this is a good solution, I would recommend it.
I would rate this solution an eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Manager, IAM (Des317) at Inspira Enterprise
Provides good stability, but its connector framework needs improvement
Pros and Cons
- "Okta Workforce Identity is easy to use and has a lot of components."
- "There should be automated aggregation and complete classification processes included in it."
What is most valuable?
Okta Workforce Identity is easy to use and has a lot of components.
What needs improvement?
The product's connector framework needs improvement. There should be automated aggregation and complete classification processes included in it.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Okta Workforce Identity for five months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable product. It provides flexibility to increase the number of users. Our customer environment has 5000 to 6000 users.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. We deploy it on the cloud. The product has good documentation to refer to for implementation. We require two engineers and one manager to execute the process.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product has a user-based license model.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated SailPoint, IBM, and Oracle. Our customer migrated from Okta to IBM for more features.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Okta Workforce Identity a five out of ten. If you don't have critical use cases and do not want a full-fledged IGA solution, Okta is a good product. However, if you want to use certification, access requests, and an extensive connector framework, Okta does not provide it.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer
Reasonably priced, easy to use, and simple to set up
Pros and Cons
- "We find the solution to be stable."
- "We've not had any problems with Okta."
What is our primary use case?
Workforce is used to both manage our identities with multi-factor authentication for the users and it's also used to handle workflow, so onboarding and offboarding, et cetera.
What is most valuable?
They work well if they're set up properly.
The initial setup is easy. It's also easy to use.
We find the solution to be stable.
The pricing is okay.
There is very little maintenance required.
What needs improvement?
We've not come across anything missing. It's under continual improvement. It is actually very good. We've not had any problems with Okta. I'd have to think hard to find anything that was badly implemented.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. The performance is good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is pretty easy. It is very simple to set up initially and it takes a couple of hours. The multi-factor authentication is simple too and can be turned on as required. The one that takes the most effort is SAML, which is the integration with the service providers. That's full-service integration and that's because a lot of service providers do it all their own way. You have to work with each of them as they come up.
In terms of how many people you need to maintain the product, it depends on how you do it. We're managing it for a couple of customers, and it's just me. However, what I've done is, I've put an API, used the API, and put a front end on that to make it easy to do the onboarding and offboarding. I don't deal with the day-to-day issues, that's done by the HR department.
What about the implementation team?
The client actually installed it. We helped as well, however, as I said, the client handled most of it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing seems very reasonable. None of the customers have complained about it.
What other advice do I have?
We're using the most up-to-date version of the solution.
As far as Okta is concerned, it's deployed in the cloud.
They're a complex software provider. They're a software as a service, software provider. They have a training service, they have a university, they have a community, and they also use it for outbound marketing.
We've implemented it for the clients and they're quite happy with it.
We're a reseller and integrator. We sell the service and do the implementation, and we're also a user ourselves.
I'd rate the solution a nine out of ten.
I'd advise new users to make sure that you implement it properly. If you buy the service and don't implement it properly, you'll never get the benefits from it. They need to make sure that you are monitoring the logs as well as that tells you if someone's doing anything they shouldn't be doing.
The journey for us is towards Zero Trust. We start with multi-factor authentication, and good password policies, and think about moving to fully integrated, where you can. That's SAML, their integration protocol, or Open ID. The next step is to think about how to make sure that all services, internal and external, are authenticated. Zero Trust implementation is where the world has to go
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Customer/ Reseller
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Okta Workforce Identity Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: November 2024
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Buyer's Guide
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