Travel letter from Oktane 2024

Oktane – the big picture

This year’s Oktane revolved around two key themes: Identity is Security and It’s Possible. I’ll dig into the second one later, but “Identity is Security” has so many aspects to it, so I'll begin with that.

Interoperability Profile for Secure Identity in the Enterprise (IPSIE)

Anyone who’s worked with integrations in complex organizations knows how challenging it can be to secure and connect various systems. Okta is addressing this by leading the development of the IPSIE standard—a holistic and unified standard for handling identity security when dealing with services. It covers SSO, lifecycle management, access, governance, and post-authentication events.

I think there is nothing but upsides for both customers and vendors in embracing IPSIE right away. By adopting this emerging standard, they can streamline integrations while boosting security and efficiency. It’s a win-win, and I’ll definitely be raising this in future discussions with the organizations I work with.

Pre-Auth, During Auth, Post-Auth

Another key point at Oktane24 was Okta’s growing emphasis on broadening our view on when identity security takes place. Many tend to associate it solely with the login process, emphasizing MFA factors, password strength and maybe incorporating risk assessments. But this approach is both outdated and restrictive. 

Instead, we need to consider these aspects long before users get anywhere near an authentication flow, and continue to do so throughout their interactions with our systems. 

With Okta’s Identity Security Posture Management (ISPM), we can now identify and mitigate risks even before users log in, and continue securing their activity post-login. Integrations with various security services sharing risk-signals and monitored events enable Okta to restrict a user's access or even log them out of both Okta and downstream services using Universal Logout. This is all with the power of workflows that manage security incidents and events precisely as required by each organization.

Bring Your Own Identity Verification

One of the demos we saw during the keynote was for the onboarding of new users. This is one of the core identity use cases for any organization, and Okta is taking it to the next level. Incorporating seamless integration with identity proofing services, organizations can ensure that the person activating an account is the right one, reducing security risks. The process is smooth and secure, and when you add in skipping password setup in favor of Okta Verify or FastPass, you make onboarding frictionless, especially for remote workers. Yes, please!

Secure SaaS service accounts

Service accounts can become a blind spot in identity security and pose significant security risks when they’re not managed properly. Okta is looking to expand its identity management features to cover these accounts, ensuring that all identities, and not just those linked directly with people, are managed and secure. I’m keen to learn more about this, since I know many of my customers already face this issue.

Customer Identity Cloud – What’s New

Customer Identity Cloud (CIC) is evolving with features like Auth for Gen AI, allowing AI agents to securely access services on users’ behalf. This process is fully secure and flexible, allowing user confirmation and verification as needed along the way. 

Something I imagine is very welcome to CIC customers catering more to B2B customers, is that CIC will allow customers to self-service configure both SSO and lifecycle management. This is really powerful, and feeds into Okta’s commitment to secure identity integrations across any service. It allows organizations to bring their own IAM tech stack and processes into their CIC-based service environments and will certainly lead to better security, more efficient processes and increased user-friendliness – the Kinderegg of IAM benefits!  

Another feature I'd like to highlight with regards to CIC, is the new customization options for Forms. These options enable customers to tailor and specialize flows for any situation. They allow for specific processing of different user types across a range of scenarios, integrating profiling, security and interfacing with external services throughout the process. It truly offers some powerful possibilities. 

“It’s Possible!”

Now, let’s talk about Oktane’s second theme: “It’s Possible!”. This was exemplified perfectly by the two guest keynote speakers who were quite different but truly inspiring in each their way.

First up was Alex Honnold, the world-famous rock climber best know for his free solo ascents of big walls. It might sound strange to call a man who scales towering cliffs “down to earth,” but that’s exactly what he was. His approach to facing challenges, both in life, in his profession and in his charity work, was quite relatable and inspiring.

The second speaker was none other than Michael J. Fox, who gave every last one of us words and examples to live by with his humor. When asked if his identity changed after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s, his simple response was, “Nope, I was still Michael J. Fox, just with Parkinson’s.” You deal with the curveballs life might throw at you, you stay grateful for the good that is in your life and you make sure to give yourself and the people surrounding you a good laugh.

Okta’s “Partner First” strategy

With Oktane back in Las Vegas, where I attended my first one back in 2018, I find myself reflecting on how things have changed for an Okta partner such as ourselves. Back then, the role of a Service Delivery Partner was kinda undefined, especially outside of EMEA.

Today, however, Okta has built a comprehensive framework that makes partnership work better than ever. I’m very happy to see this, and I’m looking forward to see how this will develop further, with Okta’s explicit “Partner First” strategy becoming even more enmeshed in what’s being done.

During the days spent at Oktane and engaging with the Okta team, it’s clear that they're also walking the walk. Every Okta person I met was eager to discuss and to help, offering insights and feedback that showed their commitment to supporting partners like us. Our partnership consists of much more than "just" this, but I find it telling for the kind of partner that the people at Okta want Okta to be, and it’s great to be able to acknowledge this!

Where do we go from here?

As I sit on the plane back to Europe, I’m still reeling from the sheer amount of news and announcements coming throughout the week. Besides the specific news and announcements, there are some things I find myself reflecting on:

How can we at Cloudworks get our hands on all the exciting new updates at the earliest point possible? We have a responsibility to ensure our customers get the most out of Okta and there is no doubt that a lot of what’s coming will hold great value for them!

How soon will all the developments be implemented, and how quickly will our EMEA customers get access to the features they’re most excited about? I love seeing “worldwide availability” on Okta slides, and I’m really hoping to see it pop up frequently this coming year!

Most importantly, how can I make sure I’m part of the team heading to Oktane25 next year? It’s an incredible event, full of great sessions, networking and even fun after-parties — it truly was a fantastic experience!

In conclusion...

A big thank you to everyone involved in organizing and bring this event to life! I can only imagine the level of planning and logistics required to pull this together, and I know you’re already working hard to ensure that next year’s Oktane is just as successful as this one.

To anyone reading this who wants to learn more about what was announced at Oktane and how it might affect your organization, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’ll be more than happy to answer your questions and dig into the benefits and impacts it can have for you!

You can reach us here