Okta was founded in 2008 by two former Salesforce.com executives to solve an emerging problem for organizations using cloud services: user management and access control. Okta integrates with Active Directory, Google Apps and other user management and access control systems to provide single sign-on and access control services for software-as-a-services (SaaS). According to co-founder and President Frederic Kerrest, Okta supports hundreds of services and that number is growing weekly.
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Some of the services that you can manage with Okta include:
- ADP
- Cisco Webex
- Concur
- Google Apps
- Salesforce.com
- SuccessFactors
Okta acts a bridge between an enterprise access control system and all the various cloud systems that may be in use. For example, one Okta customer, Enterasys, integrated Salesforce.com with its Active Directory. But Enterasys soon realized it would have to build similar integrations for each and every SaaS it used in the future. Okta makes this easier by allowing a company to build one integration – with Okta – and manage all future connections through Okta.
Kerrest met Okta CEO and co-founder Todd McKinnon while working at Salesforce.com. Kerrest worked in business development and sales, and McKinnon was SVP of engineering.
While there are many companies working on data integration in the cloud, such as SnapLogic, the identity management and access control space is just getting started. Okta is certainly a company to watch.
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