Okta Platform

I have worked on all components of Okta Platform starting from Access Gateway to Identity Governance to Okta PAM solution to Okta Workflow. I have worked end-to-end on these components, including requirements gathering, drawing the architecture out, building it out, testing it, deploying to production, and hypercare. I deal with the end-to-end process independently.

For securing access to cloud infrastructure, Okta Platform helps by using an authorization server so we can utilize modern protocols such as SAML or OAuth to have those chains generated, client credential flow or authorization code flows to secure the application. When it comes to AI agents, we can onboard them to Okta Platform. We can run certification campaigns around these AI agents so that these agents are not over-privileged. We have MCP gateways which we can leverage to act as a gateway between the application and MCP gateway. We can secure which particular application or agent is allowed to call which particular MCP gateway and the tools inside it. That is how Okta Platform secures it on a high level.

Okta Platform can help to secure access to non-human identities in my environment, such as service accounts, machine-to-machine access, or AI agents.

Regarding use cases where Okta Platform helps protect non-human identities, when it comes to agent onboarding, that is what it does for non-human identities. It takes in the non-human identities in the form of agents. The XA protocol also plays a key role inside it. Currently, Okta Platform also has the OAuth OBO token which works in case of non-human identities. I have built POCs and also worked in some applications that consume it. I have experienced building solutions regarding non-human identities with Okta Platform.

Regarding the specific industry or regulatory requirements, currently the projects that I am working on include one in the healthcare industry and another in the entertainment industry. They are leaders in their respective industries. Okta Platform is being implemented there.

Regarding AWS services that are integrated or secured through Okta Platform, it is not direct. We are not securing Lambda directly from my current project. We are using Okta Platform to transform the logs to a SIEM platform using Lambda and AWS Gateway.

I have noticed measurable security and operational improvements in my cloud-based workloads since implementing Okta Platform. Previously when it was being handled by some other configuration logic or tool, it was not able to perform up to the mark. Sometimes the configuration was difficult for it to handle. With onboarding to Okta Platform, it became easier to handle those scenarios. The security rails and the logs around Okta Platform are very good. It has detailed information, so everything becomes easier with Okta Platform.

What I appreciate about Okta Platform is that it is currently moving towards agents. Agent Gateways are something that Okta Platform is moving forward with. Okta Platform has come up with an XA solution that is modernly used for agent communication and it is leading in the market. There are other technologies that are following, but Okta Platform is currently leading that space.

The key benefits that I have seen from using Okta Platform are that it is easy to configure. There are a lot of customizations that are available. When it comes to orchestration tools, using them we can do many use cases which might not be possible out of the box. It has a lot of flexibility towards it.

Okta Platform is moving towards AI, which is good, but that space is very new. Okta Platform can understand the use case better and move faster in that field because the AI agent has many gaps. The non-human identity part has many gaps which Okta Platform can fulfill.

Apart from the AI aspect, there are missing features in Okta Platform that I would like to see included in the future or enhanced. The MCP gateway onboarding for agents can be made smoother. Agents already have the capabilities to link with Okta Privilege Access for key management. If it could be made easier to map those out, it would be easier to adopt.

I have been working with Okta Platform for three years.

Regarding the performance and scalability aspect of Okta Platform, it performs very well. It has a very good runtime. Okta Platform has committed to 99.99% uptime that it will be online. When it comes to Okta Workflow, when there are too many flows running at once, those get delayed. Sometimes some of the values in the workflows are not populated correctly. I have opened a ticket with Okta Platform regarding this. It is some system bugs that they cannot fix.

On a scale of one to ten, where ten is the best, I would recommend the technical support of Okta Platform a solid 9.5. The response is very active. Even if the person who is assigned is not able to help, they take help from their subject matter experts of those products to help us out. The technical support of Okta Platform is very good.

Apart from Okta Platform, I have worked with Auth0, which is a product of Okta itself. I have also worked with Ping and ForgeRock.

Regarding the deployment aspect, it is not that difficult with Okta Platform. The reason being Okta Platform is a cloud solution and it is not on-premises. Because it is on the cloud, it is very easy to deploy it.

I have not seen any ROI with Okta Platform.

My experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing part of Okta Platform is that from the licensing perspective, from what I am aware, it is competitive. Some of the tools are more expensive and the pricing is okay. It is not too great, it is not too bad from what I know.

The key differences, both pros and cons of Okta Platform in comparison to Ping technologies or ForgeRock that I used are that Ping has more customizable options in regard to journeys. Okta Platform does not provide those customizable journeys. Ping has more towards it. Ping can do identity verification, which Okta Platform lacks. Okta Platform cannot do ID verification built-in and they have to rely on other third-party vendors such as Persona to do identity verification. There are some areas which Okta Platform can still improve with respect to identity verification.

I work with Okta Platform as an AWS version. I have worked on the AWS hosted version of it, not Azure.

For the procurement of Okta Platform, I work for the client and they purchased it from Okta Platform. The way they were reached out is that they have been using Okta Platform for almost five to six years now. They have a strong relationship with Okta Platform and that is how they got it.

Given my varied experience with Okta Platform technologies, one of the key areas that organizations lack currently is security. Many organizations take it lightly because it does not affect their features in a way. But security is one of the key factors. Okta Platform is a better approach to implementing Identity Access Management. As they do not have to rely on versioning, you can directly integrate with Okta Platform and it will help you manage the users, groups, and everything at a central place. Because it is being managed by a separate team, there are less chances of having bugs and it is easier to maintain those.

Public Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

What do you like best about the product?

What I like most about Okta is how it makes my day-to-day IT work easier by simplifying user access and application management. I find it especially useful to have access managed centrally, as it helps me onboard users, manage permissions, and troubleshoot access issues more efficiently. I also appreciate how SSO and MFA improve security without making things unnecessarily complicated for employees. Overall, Okta helps me save time, maintain better control over access, and make IT operations smoother.

What do you dislike about the product?

One thing I find challenging about Okta is troubleshooting application access and user provisioning issues. Sometimes, when a user cannot access an application or an attribute is not mapped correctly, it takes several steps to identify whether the issue is related to the user assignment, group membership, attribute mapping, or application configuration. More detailed error messages and a clearer troubleshooting process would make it easier to identify the root cause and resolve issues faster. I would also appreciate a more streamlined way to review access permissions across applications, which would help me manage user access more efficiently and maintain least-privilege security.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Okta helps me manage user access more efficiently by centralizing application assignments, group memberships, and access permissions. In my IT operations role, I work with user access requests, application assignments, and attribute configurations, which has helped me better understand how access is managed across different applications. It also helps me troubleshoot login and provisioning issues and ensure users have the appropriate access based on their roles. I find Okta valuable for streamlining onboarding and offboarding, reducing manual work, and supporting our least-privilege security goals. Overall, it gives me better visibility and control over access while helping me provide faster IT support to employees.

What do you like best about the product?

Okta provides an exceptionally intuitive experience for administrators, streamlining the management of users, groups, applications, AI agents, and APIs. The platform's performance is consistently reliable, and leveraging Okta Workflows has been a game-changer for automating our lifecycle management processes. Beyond the product itself, their customer support is outstanding. The onboarding process was seamless, and their technical support team is always responsive, knowledgeable, and quick to resolve any issues, backed by extensive and easy-to-follow documentation

What do you dislike about the product?

The user interface feels quite dated and lacks a modern, polished aesthetic. While it is highly functional, the platform would benefit greatly from a refreshed UX/UI design featuring better color contrast, which would make the admin console more visually engaging and easier to navigate

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Before Okta, managing user access and application provisioning was a highly manual and time-consuming process. Okta solves this by fully automating our user and application lifecycle management. This benefits us by ensuring secure, day-one access for new hires and immediate access revocation upon departure, saving our IT team countless hours of manual work each week.

What do you like best about the product?

Makes adding new login methods very easy as we expand our security landscape. It also makes it easy for us to onboard third party clients to enable login with our user base.

What do you dislike about the product?

The dashboard can be difficult to navigate and system logs can be difficult to find information in

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Okta is helping us enable more login methods across our ecosystem (most recently added SMS verification) and allows us to be a single source of truth for any login experiences across our whole organization

What do you like best about the product?

I really appreciate Okta for several reasons. It's our identity platform, and I find it very stable and easy to use. The protections it offers, like seamless app access and phishing-resistant login methods, are very valuable to us. Since we have over 2000 users, uptime is crucial, and Okta delivers on that. Additionally, it allows us to autogrant app access to users while ensuring security with multi-factor authentication and password-less login methods.

What do you dislike about the product?

Sometimes I get a little lost in the policies, like authentication and password rules, and how they work together. It's hard to figure out which one takes precedence. We're also fans of the new AI features being released, but we're worried about the cost. Having outdated policies for a long time, like those marked 'legacy', is also a bit challenging. A regular review with an engineer could really help keep things on track.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Okta gives seamless app access and phishing-resistant logins, ensuring security with MFA and password-less methods for over 2000 users.

What do you like best about the product?

I like that Okta is easy to use and the uptime is great. Also, setting it up was very easy. I use it with Slack, and it has been effective for managing identities and getting people access quickly.

What do you dislike about the product?

There's not much I find that could be improved about Okta, but maybe the workflows could use some work.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Okta simplifies getting people access, it's easy to use, and has great uptime, making identity management straightforward for me.

What do you like best about the product?

I like how Okta integrates with many other platforms and tools. Okta centralizes our authentication and gives us the tools to automate access provisioning securely. Okta integrates with almost our entire app catalog, and we also use Workflows across many apps for integrations. For my role, I manage authentication policies and other security controls.

What do you dislike about the product?

I find they can be slow to roll out new features. I think there are some quality of life improvements that could make deployment of Okta easier for admins. It can be difficult to fully implement Okta and follow best practice. It was a slow process, but worth it.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Okta centralizes our authentication and automates access provisioning securely, integrating with our entire app catalog for seamless operation.

What do you like best about the product?

The time it saves our support team by automating employee lifecycle tasks

What do you dislike about the product?

There are some somewhat obvious features that are missing that you have to use a 3rd party extension to solve.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Okta workflows helps automate many processes and track app and license usage, saving us time and money.

What do you like best about the product?

My favorite thing about Okta is how detailed the logs are. Okta makes it easy to identify the root of an issue and troubleshoot from there.

What do you dislike about the product?

When using the Okta verify app on windows accompanied by Windows Hello, the pop up windows don’t pop up in the correct order, always requiring me to click/open the other window.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Okta does a good job at centralizing our user base and provisioning access in a simple manner.

What do you like best about the product?

It’s simple and easy to understand. The UI is clean, and it feels like it offers limitless possibilities.

What do you dislike about the product?

I wish the filters in the system log were easier to use and filter

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

It has been helping us with SSO across all our applications, as well as with privileged access.