Businesses at Work

Welcome to the eighth annual Businesses at Work report, an in-depth look into the applications that workforces use to stay productive around the world. As organizations uncover the magic recipe for “work from anywhere,” hackers train their sights on an easy target. (Hint: it rhymes with schmegacy.)

Hold onto your seats—this wild ride is getting even more exciting.

Collaboration apps hold the top spot

Two categories are consistently the most popular: collaboration apps and security tools. While these two categories lead the pack, design software, electronic signature tools, and cloud platforms are on the rise. For those in tech, there's a lot of love for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Workspace.

Businesses at Work 2022 Most Popular App Categories.
Businesses at Work 2022 Fastest-Growing Apps by Number of Customers.

New apps are coming in hot

This year’s list of fastest-growing apps continues to be a veritable Who’s Who of promising up-and-comers. Meet Notion, TripActions, Postman, Keeper, Airtable, Fivetran, and Gong—seven newcomers to the top ten. And for the first time ever, five different collaboration tools make the list.

Best-of-breed apps are gaining ground

Gone are the days of one-vendor shops. Even with constrained budgets, organizations are finding ways to add best-of-breed apps on top of their productivity suites. We’re seeing Microsoft 365 customers getting their Zoom, Google, and Slack on.

Percentage of Okta Customers That Use Best-of-Breed Apps in Addition to Microsoft 365

45%

also use Zoom.

38%

also use Google Workspace.

33%

also use Slack.

The cloud crowns a new power couple

Organizations are deploying two or more cloud platforms, a trend that has jumped from 8% to 14% over the last four years. And while Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) steal the show as the preferred platform pairing, not every AWS combo is a winner.

Businesses at Work 2022 Customers Deploying Multiple Cloud Platforms.

53x

Organizations using Microsoft Legacy Authentication on average face a 53 times higher ratio of threats to authentications.

Legacy is a hacker's paradise

Hackers aren’t just targeting accounts with Microsoft Legacy Authentication—they’re targeting them on average 53 times more across all industries. But when organizations deny access via Legacy Authentication, the ratio of threats to authentications drops by 90–99%.

Zero Trust policies are building momentum

Firewalls alone won't cut it. Whether at the user, device, or network level, organizations recognize the importance of putting Zero Trust into action.

Progress in Adopting Zero Trust

+91%

Network Context

Percentage of customers leveraging risk-based policies increased from 2.2% in October 2020 to 4.2% in October 2021.

+31%

User Context

Percentage of customers leveraging WebAuthn increased from 11.8% in October 2020 to 15.5% in October 2021.

+9%

Device Context

Percentage of customers leveraging device trust increased from 7.7% in October 2020 to 8.4% in October 2021.

Live webinar

Top Tech Trends and Apps of 2021

Learn about the most popular and fastest-growing apps of the year, as well as the latest security trends. This webinar explores the findings from Okta’s Businesses at Work Report 2022, which investigates how organizations and people work today—including the applications and services they use to be productive.

Businesses at Work 2022.