Adoption of Okta Cloud Connect Also Accelerates as Enterprise IT Looks to Scale Cloud Deployments
San Francisco, CA – May 1, 2013 — Okta today announced that it has increased its customer count by more than 500 percent year-over-year, with hundreds of enterprises now under contract for its cloud-based identity management service. Companies new to Okta in 2012 and early 2013 include Clorox, Western Union, Quicksilver, National Geographic, Popeye's Chicken, Autotrader.com, Rosetta Stone, Rotary International and London Gatwick Airport. The company also announced significant adoption of its free Okta Cloud Connect product, formerly called Okta Directory Integration Edition.
“In adopting new cloud and mobile applications – and empowering employees to use whatever set of devices they choose – organizations have realized that an enterprise-grade solution that solves the identity management challenges inherent in making this shift is essential,” said Todd McKinnon, CEO of Okta. “Whether with our Enterprise Edition or Okta Cloud Connect, companies use Okta to securely manage access for employees, customers and partners – regardless of time, device and place. We’ve built all our products on the same secure, scalable and reliable platform, and work with the leading software providers, to uniquely address the identity management challenges facing enterprises today.”
London Gatwick Airport Chooses Okta for Zero-Downtime Architecture, Comprehensive Approach to Security
London Gatwick Airport, the United Kingdom’s second largest international airport, saw more than 34.2 million passengers pass through its doors in 2012 and employs more than 27,000 staff members and contractors. It recently chose Okta to be its core platform for identity and access management.
“Gatwick Airport never shuts down, and we expect the same from our partners – especially for critical infrastructure such as identity. Okta proved that it has an enterprise-grade service that could meet our specific technical, operational and security requirements,” said Michael Ibbitson, CIO of London Gatwick Airport. “As we continue to adopt new cloud services and enable our BYOD mobility policy, identity management will become a key linchpin to our long-term IT strategy. We’re confident in Okta’s ability to deliver, scale and partner with us in enabling that strategy.”
Gatwick began its evaluation of cloud-based identity management providers in order to support its expanding use of cloud-based services including Box, ServiceNow, Yammer and other applications specifically designed to improve airport operations. The organization chose Okta for the following reasons:
Zero-Downtime Architecture: Gatwick Airport is a 24/7 facility and requires its vendor partners to operate in a similar fashion. Okta’s zero-downtime architecture has maintained perfect availability for the past 13 months. The company also expanded its footprint with Amazon Web Services in 2012, with its service now spanning eight availability zones and two geographic regions.
Comprehensive Approach to Cloud Security: As one of the most-trafficked airports in the United Kingdom, Gatwick Airport requires its partners to meet very stringent security requirements. Okta takes a comprehensive approach to security that spans people, process and technology – and has achieved a number of rigorous security milestones, including the completion of the SOC 2 Type II audit across all five trust principles.
Emphasis on Mobile Identity: With more than 1,000 employees who don’t have traditional desk jobs, Gatwick has implemented a “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) mobility policy to better engage and inform mobile workers. Okta supports this initiative by providing secure access to all of the airport’s applications from any device.
“With Okta, we’ll be able to centrally control access and deliver single sign-on to our existing cloud and on-premises applications, as well as the increasing set of new services we plan to adopt,” said Ibbitson. “Not only will this help us streamline our own IT operations, but we expect huge productivity benefits from giving all our people access to all of our applications, from anywhere, and via any device.”
Okta And ISV Partners See Continued Adoption of Okta Cloud Connect
One of the biggest drivers of Okta’s continued growth has been the rapid adoption of its free Okta Cloud Connect product. Since announcing its availability, Okta has ramped joint sales and marketing partnerships with leading cloud ISVs – including Box, Workday, salesforce.com and Google Apps – to accelerate the adoption of their applications in the enterprise. Hundreds of companies have taken advantage of the solution to enable secure and seamless integration between Active Directory and these business-critical cloud applications.
“In 2012, enterprise sales at Box increased 150 percent, driven by large organizations that recognized the importance of better leveraging the content that is at the center of their business,” said Whitney Bouck, General Manager of Enterprise at Box. “Successful organizations are doing this by marrying user-loved products like Box with the right security models that protect corporate information and ensure proper access control. Okta Cloud Connect helps our joint customers easily access Box securely and at scale, from any device or location, with the assurance that a person's identity is thoroughly authenticated.”
Extending Active Directory to cloud applications hosted outside of the corporate firewall has created significant challenges for IT organizations. Okta Cloud Connect allows companies to seamlessly integrate cloud applications back to Active Directory, providing automated user management and provisioning capabilities to accelerate secure deployments, as well as to increase user adoption and ROI within any organization.
For more information on Okta Cloud Connect, please visit: http://www.okta.com/free.
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