Managing corporate identity is one of the most difficult of tasks for a company. Businesses want to own their employees’ identity. It’s just the way of business.
Workday has become a powerhouse in managing the people for businesses. Last week the company filed for a $400 million IPO. But Workday lacks a clear way to provide their customers with a clear way to provide identity management. That’s where cloud-based Okta comes into the picture. Okta’s play in the market comes with its cloud-based identity management service. The “cloud,” is key here. Most identity management services are on-premise. They were built for another age when Microsoft ruled and the need for identity was almost exclusively through Windows Active Directory.
Today, the two companies are partnering to offer a collection of Okta’s cloud-based identity services with Workday’s human resources management technology.
The partnership stems from the new ways we see people conducting their work. Businesses are more dominated by iPads and iPhones, Androids and tablets. That is requiring a different way for companies to manage identity issues.
Okta will develop and partner with Workday, which has major installations with large companies that on average are doing deals that average $650,000, according to Todd McKinnon, co-founder and CEO of Okta. These large companies often need identity services that can scale up or down. Okta provides the tools to make this happen.
Identity services will increasingly become critical as companies seek ways to better manage the way trust is authenticated. As devices proliferate, the need for integrated services will grow.
Both Workday and Okta compete with legacy providers such as Oracle and IBM.