Today, Okta, an on-demand identity and access management service provider, and Cloud Sherpas, a Google Apps cloud service provider, announced a new partnership with the goal of accelerating enterprise adoption of cloud computing.
This partnership between Okta and Cloud Sherpas will help organizations of all sizes adopt Google Apps and streamline initial set-up and reduce IT expenses, as well as increase productivity for employees and administrators.
Cloud Sherpas is a reseller and solutions provider, simplifying the process of ‘going Google,’ and says it has helped more than one million end users from hundreds of companies migrate to Google Apps — the cloud email and collaboration platform for businesses from start-ups to large enterprises.
Okta and Cloud Sherpas have already worked together to bring cloud to a number of companies, including AMAG Pharmaceuticals, using Okta to manage Google Apps and more than 20 other cloud-based applications.
I disagree with the way Okta is positioned. They are actually not an identity and access management solution for the cloud.
Theya re an aggregator of many cloud solutions (like Amazon or Google), and do nothing differently from either Amazon or Google, except position themselves as a cloud app IDM provider.
Actually what they have is a ‘Me Too’ cloud app provisioning engine which has the option to use Active Directory to bind it all together…if that’s what is needed, but the desktop looks just like another Citrix client from 2003!
What’s different? What’s new? Just the opportunity to use your name and grab some of that SV VC cash based on track record. This is a hollow promise…but hey…more power to the guys who pull the wool over the eyes of VCs impressed by track record and who don’t do their due diligence.