The fifth annual Businesses @ Work report from Okta has just come out and it makes for a very interesting bedtime read.
As you’ll know, Okta are the world’s leading IDaaS (Identity as a Service) provider who safely and securely connect some of the world’s biggest businesses (Adobe, 20th Century Fox, Experian, News Corp) to the apps they need to work faster and smarter.
Every year they produce the Business @ Work report which, in their own words, provides ‘an in-depth look into how organisations and people work today, exploring workforces and customers, and the applications and services they use to be productive.’
The full read is here.
It’s a very long, very detailed report that analyses data between November 1st 2017 and October 31st 2018 and according to tech writer Jack Madden writing in brianmadden.com, ‘is based on metrics pulled from their customer base’ of around 5,600 companies doing B2B and B2C identity, and often both. He continues, ‘the data gives a good view into trends in cloud apps with the caveat that the data only represents Okta customers, i.e. enterprise companies that have jumped on the cloud identity train.’
Fastest Growing Apps
The top three apps in their ecosystem are (perhaps unsurprisingly) all security-related. KnowBe4, a User Awareness Training platform is number one on their list of fastest-growing apps in corporate America with an adoption rate of 178% and what’s really interesting, so says our own Stephen Dorling, is that ‘the market opportunity they cite (or least the ongoing education and development needed by business into their Cyber Awareness Training of employees) as less than 50% of survey respondents claimed to have never participated in Cyber Security Training at work.’
The other two are LastPass, a freemium password manager that stores encrypted passwords online and Proofpoint who offer cybersecurity and compliance solutions and it’s hardly a shocker they’re strong in the US enterprise market given that it’s Okta’s home turf!
The focus is on the US but they managed to squeeze in Mimecast as the fastest-growing app with a European HQ!
Quantity Over Quality?
The average number of apps per client is about 85 and for companies with 2,000+ employees who have been with Okta for over three years, that number jumps to over 160 with an increase of 68% in the number of deployed apps.
This leads us to the age-old Microsoft vs. Everyone Else argument. The top app by volume and usage in their network is Office365 but what’s becoming increasingly popular is that the overwhelming majority of users, to the tune of almost 80%, are no longer committing to a Microsoft-only environment and are deploying best-of-breed non-MS applications to compliment O365.
- Almost 30% use Slack
- Around a quarter are connecting via Zoom
- Over 28% are ‘double-bundling’, subscribing to G Suite from Google
How Many Passwords Do You Have?
As it turns out, not that many. If someone has access to your webmail account, it’s likely that the same password can be used to access almost everything you have a password for. Nearly 40% of respondents said they used the same 2-4 passwords for everything and 10% admitted to using the same one.
Multi-factor authentication is the answer to protect against costly security and data breaches and an increasing number of companies – 70% of respondents – are using two to four different factors (up 65% y-o-y) and 29% are using four or more factors.
The report goes on to say that Okta ‘also see a slow but steady shift toward more secure factors (app generated codes, push authentication, and physical keys) and away from lower assurance factors like SMS and security questions. The two most commonly used factors are Okta Verify (a mobile app-based factor) and SMS. The number of customers with Okta Verify has increased over the past three years, whereas the number of customers with SMS has dropped.’
They go even further. ‘Over two-thirds of the Okta customers who enrolled since 2016 with less secure factors added more secure factors within two years. After two years, 71% of customers had added Okta Verify and 44% had added Google Authenticator, while 15% had added YubiKey and 5% had added Duo.’
Productivity Killers
Would anyone like to take a guess as to what the number one productivity killer in the workplace is? Correct. Meetings. Back in November we blogged about the utter futility of meetings and – middle managers take note – 73% of respondents said they’d rather read an email than have a meeting. After unnecessary meetings, outdated tech was second on the list and responding to messages and emails, third.
Click here for the Businesses @ Work Dashboard, a ready-reckoner of all the gathered data.
To reiterate a point we made earlier, keep in mind that this data is representative of Okta’s customers, the applications they connect to, and the ways in which users access these applications through their service.
There’s plenty more to get through so take some time to read the report. You might be surprised about what you’ll find…
To talk to us about how to safely and securely connect your users to the apps they need for optimum productivity and for more information on anything and everything cloud-related, email us today on info@koncisesolutions.com or call 020 7078 0789.
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