Identity Access Management (IAM) is an increasingly important aspect of business technology, helping advance security by providing the tools needed to manage system access and security credentials. In fact, the current climate of rising IT security concerns paired with increased movement to cloud computing has led to projected a 12 percent growth for the IAM sector. As users are increasingly demanding mobile access, leading IAM providers have moved to cloud-based tools collectively known as Identity as a Service (IDaaS).
Avatier and Okta are two leading providers of IDaaS. However, there are important distinctions to consider when choosing which platform will provide the best access tools for your business. In the comparison below, we’ll share some key considerations.
Avatier vs. Okta: Features and Focus
Both Avatier and Okta provide the essentials of identity management.
Single-Sign-on (SSO) provides the strong benefits of improved user productivity, increased access security, and reduced costs. Lifecycle management tools automate user provisioning, remove the risk of unnecessary access, and provide the IT oversight that aids in compliance. Access governance provides a unified framework with strong account visibility that can be deployed in weeks.
While a comparison between Avatier and Okta shows that each offers these identity management features, KuppingerCole analysts noted a key difference in their 2017 KuppingerCole Leadership Compass Report. While Okta’s focus is on the B2C space of providing businesses with access solutions for customers, Avatier leads in the B2E sphere that focuses on employee and enterprise access.
It’s important for businesses to offer customer access tools that are effective and secure. However, employees and enterprise users have wide-reaching access to file systems, data, and information, which can have devastating consequences if targeted. Therefore, exploited employee access has the potential for a Sony-level security breach.
In this high-stakes B2E field of IDaaS tools, KuppingerCole analysts named Avatier an Innovation Leader in their industry analysis, citing its “leading-edge user interfaces with strong support for mobile users.”
Avatier vs Okta: Security and Frameworks
Since a major benefit of IDaaS tools is improved security, let’s review how Avatier and Okta compare on this front.
Okta is built using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) framework. Because of this, it’s been noted that Okta could be vulnerable to the security issues of AWS.
Avatier’s framework is much different. Because of its focus on the cutting-edge of security solutions, Avatier released the world’s first Identity-as-a-Container (IDaaC) platform. Through containerization, Avatier is able to provide its customers with identity solutions that have reduced management complexity, bandwidth consumption, and client resource usage. Avatier’s IDaaC provides continuous delivery, horizontal and vertical scale, without the staffing burden of managing networking details. This saves both time and cost, whether you’re running in the cloud or on-premise.
Based on our recent analysis comparing Avatier and Okta, Avatier is the only platform that provides multiple layers of endpoint security, from patch management, antivirus, and application control to vulnerability detection and more.
This isn’t the first time that Avatier has had cutting-edge insight into security. One notable example was in 2014 when the Heartbleed security flaw exploited vulnerabilities in web SSO and cloud identity management for 1.5 million companies. Tech giants such as Github and Amazon Web Services (AWS) were affected. Okta’s response said that it “quickly addressed the bug, updated its service, and eliminated any Heartbleed vulnerabilities going forward.”
In comparison, Avatier software wasn’t affected by the security vulnerability, and company execs had been blogging about the potential security risk before the Heartbleed bug was detected.
Avatier vs Okta: Customers and Market
Okta has received much buzz from Wall Street analysts because even though the company hasn’t shown profits, investors are still interested. This is due, in part, to Okta’s strong focus on upselling to existing customers. Charles Race, Okta’s President of Worldwide Field Operations said, “Once we acquire a customer, we ask how we can upsell.” This strategy has earned results, and Motley Fool reports that existing customers increased their spending by 121% over last year.
Financial experts are impressed with the numbers, but a business model that relies upon a strong rate of upselling prompts the question of whether these upsells are superseding the technological reality of the business.
In comparison, Avatier isn’t an upstart trying to game the market with fast growth. The privately owned company has been providing patented access and provisioning tools for more than two decades. Because of its innovation and state-of-the-art technology, Avatier is the only company providing solutions that adapt to the needs of the business user. In combining separate applications, cloud services, and even employee assets, Avatier provides a unified framework for business processes across operations.
Avatier’s solution provides the best operational efficiencies in the industry, so you can grow your business.
Conclusion
For businesses looking for Identity Access Management (IAM) tools such as SSO and user provisioning, it’s worth considering current security and compliance needs as well as future potential. Avatier’s reputation as an innovator and its revolutionary Identity-as-a-Container (IDaaC) technology set it apart from Okta. Using IDaaC is a way to “future-proof” you enterprise through is flexibility, scalability, and cost effectiveness.
