Okta launches two new cloud innovations Workforce Identity Cloud and Customer Identity Cloud

Okta, the independent identity provider, announces two new innovations: the Okta Workforce Identity Cloud and Okta Customer Identity Cloud. The news comes in line with Okta’s 10th annual conference, Oktane22.

“Our vision is to free everyone to safely use any technology, and we’re anchored in our bigger-picture purpose to ensure identity belongs to you,” states Todd McKinnon, CEO, and Co-Founder of Okta. “When identity belongs to you and everyone in your organisation, it’s the catalyst to grow your business, achieve your goals, and protect your workforce and customer base. This is the purpose of our tenth Oktane: outlining our vision and solutions that put the power of identity in your hands — and it starts with the unveiling of our two clouds.”

Workforce identity cloud

In a complex and rapidly changing technology ecosystem, identity remains a critical connective tissue between the ecosystem of people and the technologies they need to do their best work. Phishing in particular continues to be one of the most pressing problems, with more than 60% of social engineering-driven data breaches attributed to credential abuse, according to Verizon’s 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report.

This unifies the identity market’s previously siloed legacy solutions into a cohesive and holistic offering

As the enterprise becomes more heterogeneous, enterprises need a unified identity approach to protect employees, third-parties, and critical infrastructure from rising identity-based threats. The new Workforce Identity Cloud powers identity for all employee, business partner, and contractor use cases and understands that people are at the heart of an organisation's success. This unifies the identity market’s previously siloed legacy solutions into a cohesive and holistic offering that makes identity a growth driver for enterprises.

Preventing phishing attempts

Key features of the Workforce Identity Cloud include:

• Advanced Phishing-Resistant Access Capabilities for FastPass: Provides phishing-resistance for all managed devices and phishing-resistance for unmanaged devices across MacOS, Windows, and Android operating systems.
• WebAuthn Allow List: Helps enterprises lock down WebAuthn enrolment only to hardware keys issued by a specific organisation to prevent phishing attempts.
• Passkey Management: Prevents users from enrolling with a multi-device FIDO credential such as passkeys, pre-empting any potential risks of unmanaged and unsecured devices accessing sensitive applications.
• New Enhanced Security Checks for Unmanaged Devices: Gives security teams deeper insight into the devices attempting to access their applications and data, enabling their organisations’ zero trust security initiatives across the entire workforce and supply chain.

Highly-privileged credentials

Okta Privileged Access will enable customers to secure highly-privileged credentials for admin

Okta Privileged Access builds off the infrastructure access capabilities of Okta Advanced Server Access by adding the hardened security and compliance layer required for privileged admin access. Okta Privileged Access will enable customers to secure highly-privileged credentials for admin and root accounts using Okta’s vaulting service that automatically rotates passwords and provides individual accountability for access to shared accounts.

Key new capabilities of Okta Privileged Access include:

• Credential Vaulting: Provides credential vaulting and rotation for Local User Accounts and human-managed shared secrets, and will provide just-in-time (JIT) access request and approval workflows for human, machine, and application users alike, eliminating the need for unnecessary standing permissions.
• Privileged Governance and Compliance: Generates privileged access reports and added session management capabilities, creating an audit trail to detect and prevent unwanted behavior, and to aid in proving compliance.
• Modern Infrastructure Access Management: Offers passwordless access management using ephemeral certificate-based authorisation for modern infrastructure including Kubernetes, Linux, and Windows servers.

Customer Identity Cloud

New app downloads have reached 230 billion and the average organisation deploys 89 apps

It’s been more than a decade since tech investor Marc Andreesen wrote that 'software is eating the world.' Now digital business is just business. The COVID-19 pandemic only accelerated this trend, forcing companies in every industry to move their applications to the cloud and deliver services online.

New app downloads have reached 230 billion and the average organisation deploys 89 apps, with as many as 187 apps for larger companies. The next big challenge is allowing people to securely move between technologies with fewer passwords while easing the integration burden on developers. All of this is underpinned by a customer identity solution that is easy to implement and extend for any digital experience.

Greater developer productivity

Okta’s new Customer Identity Cloud, powered by Auth0, makes it possible to improve the overall experience and keep customers secure at the same time, all while enabling app builders to focus on what is most important – innovating for their customers. Two differentiated use cases for Consumer Apps and SaaS Apps, and several product innovations for modern app builders make it possible to accelerate growth with a better user experience, reduced risk, and greater developer productivity.

The Okta Customer Identity Cloud for Consumer Apps helps any organisation streamline registration and login across any device, stack, or platform, for higher customer acquisition and retention, a better experience, and a fuller view of users.

Trustworthy login experience

Key features include:

• Passkeys Support: Passkeys are a replacement for passwords that make it faster and easier for users to sign into apps and websites on any device. App builders can turn on passkeys using a toggle in Okta’s dashboard, without touching their code.
• Security Center: Security Center leverages Okta’s vast threat insights from billions of authentications to create a single source of truth for security teams to monitor in real-time, detect, and respond to any suspicious activity.
• Okta Workforce Enterprise Connection: SaaS app builders can easily offer out-of-the-box integrations to Okta Workforce Identity Cloud, providing end-users with a seamless and trustworthy login experience. It is included on all enterprise and B2B self-service plans for no additional charge.

Diverting development resources

The Okta Customer Identity Cloud for SaaS Apps helps companies get enterprise-ready, onboard new users, and manage authentication across business customers, without diverting development resources away from their core product.

• Okta Workforce Enterprise Connection: Okta Workforce Enterprise Connection makes it easy for SaaS app builders to offer out-of-the-box integrations to Okta Workforce Identity Cloud, providing end-users with a seamless and trustworthy login experience. This enterprise connection is included on all Enterprise and B2B self-service plans for no additional charge, and now easier to discover and configure for SaaS Apps use cases.
• Organisations: Organisations enables SaaS companies to manage and model identity for business customers as organisations, and configure custom, organisation-based branding and policies. New support for up to two million organisations per tenant, two million members per organisation, and improved search capabilities are available now.

Workflows security templates

New capabilities for Consumer Apps will be available by the end of Q2 2023

Okta Customer Identity Cloud including the new use cases for Consumer Apps and SaaS Apps is available on the Okta website. For SaaS Apps, enhancements for the Okta Workforce Enterprise Connection and Organisations are available today for Enterprise and B2B self-service customers. New capabilities for Consumer Apps will be available by the end of Q2 2023, with support for Highly Regulated Identity as an Enterprise Add-on.

New Enhanced Security Checks for Unmanaged Devices is now generally available through Adaptive MFA. Workflows Security Templates are now generally available. Passkey Management is currently in Early Access and will be available through MFA and Adaptive MFA. Okta FastPass with enhanced phishing resistance factors will be generally available and WebAuthn Allow List will be in Early Access in Q1 of 2023 through MFA and Adaptive MFA.

Making purchase decisions

Workflows Connector Builder will be generally available in Q1 of 2023. Okta Identity Governance is generally available in North America today and will be globally available in Q4 of 2022 as a standalone offering. Okta Privileged Access will be in Early Access in Q2 of 2023 and generally available in Q4 of 2023 as a standalone offering.

Any unreleased products, features, or functionality referenced in this release that are not currently available, may not be delivered on time or at all. Product roadmaps do not represent a commitment, obligation, or promise to deliver any product, feature, or functionality, and customers should not rely on them to make purchase decisions.