Okta saved us a lot of time and confusion
February 03, 2025

Okta saved us a lot of time and confusion

Bruce Carter | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Enterprise

Modules Used

  • Okta Workforce Identity Cloud

Overall Satisfaction with Okta

Okta is the primary cloud IdP for the campus. Several years ago we started a project to move all services and servers over to a more secure authentication and authorization system than local password databases within each application. Also, our Information Security department wanted to enforce uniform password criteria across the campus such that passwords would meet minimum criteria for best practices.

Pros

  • Centralized control of enterprise passwords
  • Extensive customization of acceptable password criteria
  • One system for Identity and Access Management to learn
  • Scalable throughout the university for all central services
  • Uniform login experience for students, faculty, and staff
  • Single point of response to address termination of access
  • Ability to use FastPass for lower priority systems
  • Excellent support of multi-factor requirements

Cons

  • More provision for local branding would be appreciated
  • Easier integration with campus MDM (Jamf Pro)
  • Simpler console for non-Identity Management staff
  • Greatly reduced offboarding access control changes
  • Organized system access by functional groups
  • Reduced the number of password control interfaced to one
  • Enforcement of password standards/best practices
  • Reduction of poor media exposure due to breaches
Previous to Okta, we did not have a central cloud IdP system, each app had it's own authentication and authorization internally. That led to a fairly messy and divergent situation where every system had a different method and look for authentication and authorization. Cross-remembering what password went with what was a constant problem for the Service Desk, who had to know how to manipulate all of the various local password systems.

Do you think Okta delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Okta's feature set?

Yes

Did Okta live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Okta go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Okta again?

Yes

Jamf Pro, Xcode, Jamf Connect, BeyondTrust Remote Support, Apple Remote Desktop, 1Password, Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCMan), Webex App, Time Machine, Slack, Ellucian Banner, MySQL, AllSight, Safari, Google Chrome, Parallels Desktop for Mac, OneDrive, Microsoft 365, GarageBand, Apple Keynote, Apple iCloud, Apple Numbers, Apple Preview, Apple Pay, iMovie, GitHub, Mozilla Firefox, Adobe Acrobat, Dropbox Business, BBEdit
I have been personally involved with integration of Okta on three systems, our Jamf Pro instance, our Keyserver (Allsight) instance, and our internal information portal. These have all been smooth installations for professional staff. However, Okta also validates students for the various public facing services that they need off campus. The only thing I can think of where it is less suitable is when it is used as an SSO solution for portable computers (laptops) and mobile devices. If there is a service issue and the central IdP authority service can't be reached, that can result in access problems.

Okta Feature Ratings

Identity Management
9.1
ID-Management Access Control
9
ID Management Single-Sign On (SSO)
9
Multi-Factor Authentication
9
Password Management
10
Account Provisioning and De-provisioning
10
ID Management Workflow Automation
8
ID Risk Management
9

Okta Reliability

Okta has been very reliable for us. In fact, I can't recall any unscheduled downtime, and scheduled downtime has only been for things like version upgrades and such. It has been a very solid system for us, at least as far as I can tell from my position as a macOS engineer and not being directly on the IAM team.
I haven't yet experienced an unplanned outage, and the only time I have seen application errors is when we are in the middle of doing an integration with an app and WE do something wrong that causes Okta to tell us we did something wrong. It seems to me to be a very reliable system.
From my perspective, for the things that my group uses it for, Okta is very fast. It is as least as fast as the local password database methods that it replaces on our campus enterprise services. I do not believe that it slows anything down at all. In fact, not having to think too much about the login, because they all look the same, probably speeds things up somewhat.

Comments

More Reviews of Okta

  1. Home
  2. Identity Management Solutions
  3. Okta Reviews
  4. User Review of Okta