Addressing Every Identity Use Case at Scale: Okta Recognized as a Strong Performer in 2020 Forrester CIAM Wave

This week, analyst firm Forrester published The Forrester Wave™: Customer Identity And Access Management, Q4 2020, which recognized Okta as a Strong Performer in the CIAM market. The last iteration of this report was published in 2017 and as a new entrant, our placement as a Strong Performer is positive validation of our investments and innovations in the CIAM space. Okta also received the top score for market presence, which speaks to the flexibility of Okta’s Customer Identity product to successfully address the full spectrum of unique CIAM use cases present in the market.

Our approach: one platform to address every use case

The vendor landscape has changed slightly since Forrester’s 2017 version of the report, but the firm continues to focus on vendors that prioritize marketing-driven use cases driven by out-of-the-box UIs. There was also a strong emphasis on on-premises capabilities, although Okta stood out as the choice “for firms looking for pure SaaS CIAM with minimal on-premises components.” We’re focused on building and innovating on our platform, the Okta Identity Cloud, with a range of no-code to pro-code tools so customers can build the best customer experiences for their unique use cases.

We know there’s a wide range of stakeholders in the CIAM market: product leaders, developers, IT and security administrators, marketing and digital transformation specialists. Deployment models vary and there’s no one-size-fits-all option, but Okta is uniquely positioned to deliver a seamless, secure customer experience for every scenario. The Okta Identity Cloud is the only cloud-delivered, multi-tenant identity platform for every access management use case. Our approach to customer identity addresses a variety of needs—as evidenced by our APIs, SDKs, and widgets—and offers flexibility, extensibility and rapid time-to-value to all. 

Forrester’s report also reinforces the power of the platform. With the Okta Identity Cloud, our customers have the flexibility to create seamless and secure experiences for their customers with a variety of tools at their disposal. Organizations such as Adobe, Dignity Health, and Pitney Bowes have validated Okta’s approach time and time again. We give them the tools to create customer-facing products and solutions that work for their business. Looking forward, as customer identities increasingly move to the cloud and as every company becomes a technology company, Okta will lead this space with our focus on customer success and our cloud-native, developer-friendly CIAM solution.

Automating complex identity processes

What’s more, we recently announced Customer Identity Workflows at Okta Showcase, demonstrating our continued commitment to automating complex identity processes by connecting to every part of the customer experience, including privacy and consent. Once generally available, customers will be able to leverage Customer Identity Workflows and Connectors to various business-critical tools. New integrations to marketing, analytics, data orchestration, and consent and privacy platforms collectively increase the scalability and extensibility of our platform.

Okta has already made significant investments to provide market leading scalability and to ensure we can support peak loads for the world’s largest customers. Andras Cser, the lead analyst of the report, reinforced the success of this approach when he called out DynamicScale, Okta Identity Engine, and Platform Services contributing to the “high availability of Okta’s CIAM offering.” As we continue to innovate in customer identity and automate the most complex identity processes, we look forward to successfully driving digital transformations across our customer base.