Okta Unveils Partner-First Growth Strategy

Okta is on a multiyear journey to become a partner-first company.

Edward Gately, Senior News Editor

October 16, 2024

3 Min Read
New partner-first strategy from Okta
Mer_Studio/Shutterstock

OKTA OKTANE — Okta is adopting a partner-first approach, including a new digital partner community, ecosystem innovation and a new cross-industry security initiative for SaaS providers.

Okta unveiled the new partner-first approach during its annual Oktane conference this week in Las Vegas.

“We’re on a multiyear journey to become a world-class, partner-first company,” said Bill Hustad, Okta’s senior vice president of global partners and alliances. “We realize that embedding partners into the fabric of your company doesn’t happen overnight. We’re committed to evolving our go-to-market motion, co-investing across the ecosystem and elevating the partner experience.”

Okta's Bill Hustad

The new digital partner community is a central hub for partners to access self-service resources and tools to grow their businesses. It includes on-demand education, timely communications, self-service marketing automation and project submission capabilities. In addition, it will showcase partner solutions to customers and connect with sellers.

Okta will introduce these new capabilities over the next several quarters.

Other Features of Okta Partner-First Approach

Okta is also innovating and integrating with partners across the ecosystem to address some of its customers' biggest challenges, including:

Related:Sophos CEO Joe Levy on Lessons Learned from CrowdStrike-Microsoft Outage

  • Four new zero-trust integrations with Zscaler to improve customers’ security posture and provide strong defenses against identity-based threats.

  • A series of integrations with Google Chrome Enterprise and Google Security Operations to help secure the browser and beyond for joint customers.

  • A universal logout integration with Cerby that improves threat detection and response when user accounts are compromised.

  • Integrating with TechJutsu to help protect call centers and help desks by reducing caller verification time to 30 seconds and securing against caller impersonation attacks.

And finally, Okta unveiled a new cross-industry security initiative for SaaS providers led by Okta and several big tech companies, such as OpenID Foundation, Microsoft, Google and Ping Identity. It will address how nearly all SaaS apps aren't built to be secure by design, which is even more dangerous with AI agents being integrated into apps.

Okta's Jon Addison

“Our partner ecosystem isn’t just an extension of our sales team — it’s a vital component of our growth and innovation strategy,” said Jon Addison, Okta’s chief revenue officer. “We’re building a powerful ecosystem of the world’s foremost secure identity experts and application developers to free everyone to use any technology.”

Related:Cynomi vCISO Platform: 'Proof Is in the Pudding'

Okta Partner Awards

Also during Oktane, Okta announced its 2024 Partner Award winners, recognizing 30 partners worldwide as innovators, identity experts and “customer champions.” 

Global award winners include:

  • GSI of the Year – Deloitte

  • Partner of the Year – Amazon Web Services (AWS)

  • Technology Partner of the Year – Google

  • Technology Partner Innovator of the Year – Palo Alto Networks

  • Workforce Identity Cloud Technology Partner of the Year – Zscaler

  • Rising Star Technology Partner of the Year – Apple

Americas award winners include:

  • Customer Identity Cloud Partner of the Year – Optiv

  • Workforce Identity Cloud Partner of the Year – Alchemy Technology Group

  • Public Sector Partner of the Year – Carahsoft

  • Public Sector Solution Provider Partner of the Year – SelecTech

  • Public Sector SI of the Year – Active Cyber

  • Rising Star Partner of the Year – TechJutsu

  • Partner of the Year – Tec360

  • SI Partner of the Year – RAAH Technologies

  • Distribution Partner of the Year – Ingram Micro

  • Delivery Partner of the Year: BeyondID

Asia Pacific and Japan award winners include:

  • Customer Identity Cloud Partner of the Year – Accenture

  • Workforce Identity Cloud Partner of the Year – LAC CO.

  • Rising Star Partner of the Year – Internet Initiative Japan

  • Partner of the Year – CyberCX

  • SI Partner of the Year – KPMG

  • Distribution Partner of the Year – Macnica

  • Delivery Partner of the Year – KPMG

Related:Fortinet Engage Partner Program Evolves to Services Model

EMEA award winners include:

  • Customer Identity Cloud Partner of the Year – Oparco

  • Workforce Identity Cloud Partner of the Year – I-TRACING

  • Rising Star Partner of the Year – Alice&Bob.Company

  • Partner of the Year – Atlas Identity (an Intragen company)

  • SI Partner of the Year – Accenture

  • Distribution Partner of the Year – Infinigate France

  • Delivery Partner of the Year – Lyvoc

About the Author

Edward Gately

Senior News Editor, Channel Futures

As senior news editor, Edward Gately covers cybersecurity, new channel programs and program changes, M&A and other IT channel trends. Prior to Informa, he spent 26 years as a newspaper journalist in Texas, Louisiana and Arizona.

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