A group of former Salesforce.com executives have launched a new company offering on-demand identity and access management services to help enterprises accelerate more secure adoption of their cloud and web-based applications.
Okta’s management team is led by CEO Todd McKinnon, who was vice president of engineering for Salesforce.com from 2003 to 2009. Obviously a strong supporter of cloud-based services, McKinnon made this prediction for 2011 in a recent commentary for Forbes:
“On-demand enterprise software revenue will break the $10B barrier. The global packaged enterprise software application market is about $90B. 2011 is the first year where more than 10% of apps will be delivered on-demand. This is great for customers. Less risk, more value, lower TCO. This is bad for legacy vendors.”
To date, Okta has raised $11 million in funding, led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Okta’s platform gives IT professionals centralized access to cloud-based apps, as well as reporting and analytics to track activity, ensure compliance and monitor application usage and ROI. End users get a single sign-on for all the apps they use via a customized homepage.
The Okta Application Network includes many pre-integrated business and consumer apps, including ADP, Concur, Salesforce.com, SuccessFactors, Google Apps, Cisco Webex, Citrix GoToMeeting, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Among the fist IT environment using the platform are Pandora, LiveOps, Enterasys, FusionStorm and AMAG Pharmaceuticals.
