2022, Inc.
Okta,
Okta, Inc.
100 First Street, 6th Floor
100 First Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
San Francisco, CA 94105
info@okta.com
info@okta.com
1-888-722-7871
1-888-722-7871

Businessesat Work

Businesses at Work

Contents

3

Intro

4

Summary of key findings

8

Methodology: how did Okta create this report?

9

Apps at Work: 2021’s most popular apps

19

Fastest-growing apps

24

The best tools for the job

29

The rise of multi-cloud33

Supporting dynamic work

38

Security at work49

App development matures

52

App’s all, folks!

2

Businesses at Work3

Welcome to the eighth annual
Businesses at Work report, an
in-depth look into how organizations
and people work today—exploring
workforces and customers, and theapplications and services they use
to be productive.
As the world attempted to turn the corner of the pandemic, companies set out touncover the magical recipe for “work from anywhere.” Solutions that had been temporary
stopgap measures during a time of crisis became long-term solutions that fueled better
workplace collaboration, clearer communication, and stronger security for teams
around the world or across the room—or, increasingly, both.

The data from Okta’s more than 14,000 global customers and the Okta Integration
Network, which includes over 7,000 integrations with cloud, mobile, and web apps,
as well as IT infrastructure providers, tells a story of adaptability and resilience.

Companies are dabbling in multi-cloud environments to get the performance they need.
They are leaning heavily into productivity suites like Google Workspace (now the third
most popular app), and they increasingly add best-of-breed functionality. Organizations
are choosing collaboration tools like the fast-growing app Notion, security solutions
such as Netskope, and scheduling software like Calendly. They’re even leveraging travelapps such as TripActions to connect their teams as some employees make their way
back into offices and in-person meetings. Developers are arming themselves with top
tools, putting more focus on the long-tail of development, with increased attention
to security and capacity. Organizations are protecting their workforces and theircustomers with stronger factors, and moving away from weaker ones. And while we
all know Zero Trust is the buzzword du jour, companies, industries, and regions areat different stages of deployment. So, when it comes to security, where are hackers
training their sights? (Hint: It rhymes with schmegacy.)

Hold onto your seats—this wild ride is getting even more exciting.

Businesses at Work

Summary of key
findings

4Apps at work: 2021’s most popular apps
• Collaboration and security tools are the two most popular categories of tools
deployed through the Okta Integration Network. Meanwhile, categories that
support remote work are the fastest growing: design software (39% year-overyear growth), electronic signature tools (38%), and cloud platforms (34%).
• Google Workspace has claimed the title of the third most popular app, with 38%
year-over-year growth.
• Collaboration power trio Google Workspace, Zoom, and Slack have won a large
number of new customers across Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Europe, the Middle
East, and Africa (EMEA), as well as among small businesses. Highlights: Google
Workspace grew 68% year over year in APAC; and in EMEA, Slack and Zoom
grew 49% and 45%, respectively.
• The tech industry ranks Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Workspace as
its two most popular apps.
• Companies and individuals are enthusiastic about giving back: The number ofcompanies deploying at least one App for Good has grown 36% year over year,
and the number of active, unique users assigned to Apps for Good has now
reached over 1.2 million.
See more data

Fastest-growing apps
• Seven out of the top 10 fastest-growing apps are brand new to the ranks: Notion,
TripActions, Postman, Keeper, Airtable, Fivetran, and Gong.
• For the first time ever, five different collaboration tools made the list: Notion,
Figma, Miro, Airtable, and monday.com.
• In EMEA, DocuSign and GitHub are the fastest-growing apps; in APAC, Google
Workspace and Zoom.
• Fastest-growing apps vary wildly by industry: tech leans into Notion and
TripActions; finance and banking, DigiCert and Envoy; nonprofits, Instagram andSurveyMonkey; and retail, GitHub.
• Highly-regulated sectors, such as government, insurance, finance and banking,and healthcare and pharmaceuticals, are turning to Okta for identity services
to protect their end users. Biggest jump: a 125% year-over-year growth ofgovernment-sector customers for identity products to protect end users.
See more data

Businesses at Work

Summary of key
findings

5

The best tools for the job• The average number of apps organizations deploy increased from 88 to 89 thisyear, contributing to an increase of 24% since 2016.
• Larger companies (2,000 employees or more) deploy more apps: 187 on average.
• The days of being a loyal, one-vendor shop are gone. Among Okta customers
deploying Microsoft 365:
• 45% also deploy Zoom.
• 33% also deploy Slack.
• 38% also deploy Google Workspace, up from 36% in 2020.
See more data

The rise of multi-cloud• The runaway favorite cloud platform is AWS, which grew 32% year over year andclaims more than six times as many Okta customers than second-place Microsoft
Azure and third-place Google Cloud Platform (GCP) grew 40% year over year.
• Terraform Cloud by HashiCorp burst onto the scene and is quickly climbing theranks: In the past six months, this eighth-ranked platform has grown 70%!
• 14% of Okta customers deploying a cloud platform have in fact deployed two or
more—a number that has increased significantly from 8%
in 2017.
• The clear “best couple” in cloud platform pairings is AWS and GCP. Amongcustomers deploying more than one cloud platform through Okta, 2.6% deploy
both AWS and GCP—an increase from 1.2% three years ago. In contrast, thecombination of AWS plus Microsoft Azure is on the decline.
See more data

Businesses at Work

Summary of key
findings

6

Supporting dynamic work
• Workday remains the top-ranked human resources (HR) tool; but second-place
BambooHR has seen 40% growth over the past year and is the #1 HR tool in
EMEA, and APAC, and among tech customers.
• Employee-engagement tools are hot again this year: Lattice (up three spots)
boasts 72% year-over-year growth, and Culture Amp is close behind with 56%.
• The number of users accessing integrated workplace-management tools such as
OfficeSpace and Envoy dropped almost 70% during the spring of 2020, but now
is approaching or exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
• Remote-access-solution tools continue to gain customers, as they are a first stepin the Zero Trust journey. Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect boasts 42% yearover-year growth since 2020, and 434% since 2018. AWS Client VPN jumped into
third place, up four spots with an impressive 190% year-over-year growth.
See more data

Security at work
• Attackers are targeting accounts using Legacy Authentication to Microsoft 365
at rates 10 or more times higher than accounts using modern authentication
protocols, depending on the industry. On average across all industries,
organizations using Microsoft Legacy Authentication face a 53 times higher ratioof threats to authentications. For the government sector, that number is 104
times higher.
• There is at least a 90% reduction in the ratio of threats to authentications whenan organization denies access using Legacy Authentication in access policies,
depending on the industry. It can be as high as 99%.
• Among all customers authenticating with a factor, WebAuthn has risen from
2% in 2019 to 16% in 2021, and 27% among workforce identity customers in
the tech sector.
• 47% of workforce customers deploy SMS and voice factors (down from 53% in2018), and only 12% deploy security questions (down from 18% in 2018).
• Among organizations deploying identity access to their end users, there has beena sharp decline in the number deploying only one factor, from 58% in 2018 to 39%
today.
• We see an increase in the number of customers putting Zero Trust building blocks
in place:• 31% increase in customers deploying WebAuthn.
• 9% increase in device trust configuration.
• 91% increase in risk-based policies.
See more data

Businesses at Work

Summary of key
findings

7

App development matures• This year’s data suggests that developers are expanding their scope: Monitoring
and visibility are becoming just as critical as development itself.
• Monitoring system Sentry reports an impressive 68% year-over-year growth.
• When it comes to software development kits (SDKs), JavaScript is by far the mostpopular tool, deployed by 77% of Okta customers. This is primarily driven by theuse of React and its open source support.
• Go is used by 19% of customers using SDK tools, enough to hold its second-placespot ahead of Java and C#.
See more data

Businesses at Work

8

Methodology: how did
Okta create this report?
To create our Businesses at Work reports, we rely on datafrom Okta customers. We anonymize Okta customer datafrom our network of thousands of companies, applications,and IT infrastructure integrations, as well as millions of dailyauthentications and verifications from countries around theworld. Our customers and their employees, contractors, partners,
and customers use Okta to log in to devices, websites, apps, andservices, and leverage security features to protect their sensitive
data. They span every major industry and vary in size, from small
businesses to some of the world’s largest organizations, withhundreds of thousands of employees or millions of customers.
As you read this report, keep in mind that this data is only
representative of Okta’s customers, the applications andintegrations we connect to through the Okta Integration
Network, and the ways in which users access these tools throughour service. The terms “app” and “tool” are used throughout thisreport to refer to applications, services, and integrations thatare available through the Okta Integration Network. The trends
we describe for Okta’s Microsoft 365 customers may differ fromthose Microsoft 365 customers who do not use Okta (i.e., thoseusing Azure Active Directory or other identity platforms that do
not provide strong cross-app integration support).
Each year, we look at app popularity in three different ways. Most
charts present the number of customers with an app deployed.
A few charts look at the number of active unique users, definedas users who have logged in to an app via Okta at least one timein the past 30 days. In our Apps for Good section, we countusers assigned, which are defined as users who have accessto the application.

We have worked carefully to standardize our data. Unlessotherwise noted, this report presents and analyzes data from
November 1, 2020, to October 31, 2021, which we refer to as“this year,” “today,” and “in 2021.” Similarly, when we refer to“last year” or “in 2020,” we are referring to data from November
1, 2019, to October 31, 2020. “2019” refers to the same period
in its respective year. When referring to company size, Okta
uses the term “small” to refer to companies with 1,999 or fewer
employees, and “large” to refer to companies with 2,000 or
more employees.
We use the term “workforce identity customers” to signify Okta
customers who are deploying Okta services to their employees.
We use the term “customer identity and access management(CIAM)” to signify Okta customers who are deploying Okta
services to their own customers. Okta also offers mixed
products that allow workforce and CIAM use cases in the sameenvironment. These products are excluded when we discuss
workforce identity and CIAM in isolation.
Unless otherwise specified, the data included in this report islimited to Okta customers that have deployed at least one app
to users through the Okta Integration Network. Also, unlessotherwise noted, this report looks at apps deployed for corporate
use. This year, our report includes data only from Okta, not Auth0.

Businesses at Work

Apps at work:2021’s mostpopular apps

9

Absence may make the heart grow fonder, but apps can bring people back together—both virtually and in the “real world,” as some companies bring employees back on site.
Collaboration apps and security tools lead the pack as the two most popular categories
of tools deployed. We also see strong growth from other categories that support remote
work, including cloud platforms, design software, and electronic signature tools.
At the app level, collaboration tools rank heavily in our top app rankings whether weare slicing the data by number of customers, by number of users, by industry, by region,or by company size. Speaking of regions and company size, this year we’re seeing very
notable growth from a certain collaboration power trio: Google Workspace, Zoom,
and Slack have won over a large number of new customers across APAC and EMEA.
These tools rank higher and are growing especially rapidly among small businesses
globally. Tech tidbit: tech organizations have been especially fond of AWS and Google
Workspace, ranking them as their #1 and #2 most popular tools, respectively.
With everything we’ve been through in the past few years, both companies andindividuals are enthusiastic about giving back: We’ve seen huge growth among thenumber of active unique users assigned to Apps for Good, now reaching over 1.2 million.

Most Popular App Categories
Content Collaboration
Security
Sales & Marketing
Cloud Platforms

Number of Customers

Developer Tools
Video Conferencing
Networking & InfrastructureHR
Analytics
Design Software
Project Management
Electronic Software
ITSM & Helpdesk
Expense Management
E-Learning

0
5
17
17
17
21
21
21
19
19
19
18
18
18
16
16
16
20
20
01
02
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
v2
v2
ul
ul
ul
ul
ar
ul
ar
ar
ar
ar
ov
ov
ov
ov
ov
ul
ar
J
o
o
J
J
J
J
J
N
M
N
N
N
M
N
M
M
M
N
N
M

Note: In this view of app usage, we count the number of customers deploying one or more apps or tools in each category.

Businesses at Work

Apps at work:2021’s mostpopular apps10

No matter the size of a company, where it’s headquartered, or its mission and vision,
all organizations have two basic needs to survive in today’s world: employees must
be able to collaborate regardless of their physical location, and companies need tokeep their assets secure.
So it’s no surprise to see that companies have consistently invested in content
collaboration apps and security tools over the years. Content collaboration—which
includes productivity suites such as Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, as well
as apps such as Slack, Box, Dropbox, and Atlassian Confluence—has owned the top
rank consistently. Security—a broad collection ranging from people-centric tools like
KnowBe4 and LastPass to device-centric Jamf Pro to network-centric Palo Alto
Networks GlobalProtect to infrastructure-centric Cloudflare—has held onto second
place since June 2018. Both categories saw a bump during the pandemic: In one month,from April 30, 2020, to May 31, 2020, the number of companies deploying content
collaboration apps and security tools each grew by 4%. Both categories continue their
hot streaks this year, with 28% year-over-year growth for content collaboration and 31%
for security tools. Collaboration apps and security tools make an impressive showing
in our fastest-growing apps, as well. And as goes the Okta Integration Network, sogoes the world.

At Takeda, offering the highest possiblelevel of biopharmaceutical expertise
across 80 countries is our top priority,and has become even more criticalduring these turbulent times. Enabling
our employees—regardless of where they
are—with a growing set of collaboration
tools has been instrumental to helping
them continue to provide care forour clients.
Bob Durfee
Head of DevSecOps, Takeda Pharmaceuticals

Businesses at Work

Apps at work:2021’s mostpopular apps

11

As more and more collaboration is done remotely, companies are expanding theircloud presence. The number of companies integrating more than one Infrastructure
as a Service (IaaS) provider with Okta grew an impressive 34% year over year—
the largest growth we’ve ever seen for that category. (How many cloud platforms
are organizations deploying, exactly? We dig into that in our multi-cloud section.)
We also see a 31% year-over-year increase in companies deploying developer
tools as organizations continue to accelerate digital transformation initiatives.
Where do we see the highest rates of growth? Companies added new functionality
they simply didn’t need pre-pandemic, back when people could slide a piece of
paper across a desk to a colleague. In particular, electronic signature and design
software apps stand out, each boasting a whopping 38% and 39% respective
increase from their 2020 levels as more companies introduced these capabilities.
And what about video conferencing, the darling of the pandemic—a category whichgrew 14% between February and May 2020 alone? In 2020, video conferencing
ranked fourth, as it generally had for years. The category still enjoyed 23% yearover-year growth this year, but in terms of rank, it cooled from fourth to sixth
place, surpassed by cloud platforms and developer tools on even hotter streaks.
Now that we’ve looked at categorical use, let’s dig into the data to see the distinct
apps, tools, and platforms companies are deploying to keep their workforces hummingand secure.

App-etite for collaboration: Google Workspace claims third
Most Popular Apps by Number of Customers
Microsoft 365

Number of Customers

Amazon Web
Services (AWS)
Google Workspace
Salesforce
Zoom
Atlassian Product Suite
Slack
DocuSign
KnowBe4
Cisco Meraki
Box
GitHubZendesk

1
1
1
7
7
7
9
9
9
8
8
8
6
6
6
0
20
20
01
01
01
02
02
02
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
02
20
20
t2
t2
t2
t2
t2
n2
b2
n2
b2
n2
b2
n2
b2
n2
b2
t2
n
b
c
c
c
c
c
e
u
e
e
e
e
u
u
u
u
c
e
u
J
F
J
O
J
J
J
F
O
F
F
F
O
O
O
J
F
O

Lucidchart
SAP Concur

Note: The Atlassian Product Suite includes Confluence, Jira, Trello, and Bitbucket, which are frequently accessed together via a subscription to Atlassian Access.

Businesses at Work

Apps at work:2021’s mostpopular apps

12

We’ve seen that many popular app categories are collaboration driven, so let’s double
click on the data to see who actually wins spots on the podium.
Breaking news: Google Workspace has taken the bronze as the third most popular app,with an impressive rally of 38% year-over-year growth! (Google, you’ll want to pickup some air mail stamps for those thank-you cards: growth in EMEA and APAC werethe major drivers pushing Google Workspace into third place this year.) Microsoft 365
and Amazon Web Services (AWS) continue to hold gold and silver, respectively, with
Salesforce and Zoom rounding out the top five.
Our most popular apps are so hot that nine out of 15 grew their Okta customer baseby 30% or more year over year. High in the ranks where thinner oxygen makes it moredifficult to maintain strong year-over-year growth, AWS grew 33%, Zoom grew 36%,
the Atlassian Product Suite grew 30%, and Slack grew 34%. (Stick with us and you’ll
see power trio Google Workspace, Zoom, and Slack pop up as fastest growing frommany angles.)Other upwardly mobile apps of note include electronic signature tool DocuSign (up 43%
year over year), security training platform KnowBe4 (up a jaw-dropping five notches,and 56%—the largest year-over-year growth from our top 15 most popular apps),
developer tool GitHub (up 41%), and diagramming and wireframing tool Lucidchart(also up 41%, and up one spot). KnowBe4 was consistently a fastest-growing app
between 2017 and 2019, for those keeping track at home.
Sifting the data by industry shows several interesting field-specific trends:• AWS is the most popular tool in the tech sector, a mantle it has held since June
2019. Google Workspace has locked in second place among tech companies since
May 2021. (See sidebar for more deets on tech).
• Among the tech sector, we still see strong year-over-year growth from thatcollaboration power trio we mentioned: Google Workspace at 32%, Zoom at 33%,
and Slack at 34%.
• Zoom’s legendary popularity is even more pronounced in the healthcare andpharmaceuticals, finance and banking, education, and nonprofit sectors, where it
ranks as the third most popular app.
• The Atlassian Product Suite takes the #2 spot in the retail industry, likely thanks
to brands building apps to better serve customers shopping from home.
• DocuSign joins the top 5 in finance and banking, as a socially distanced world
seeks to expand its secure remote document signing capabilities.
• Box makes the top 5 among nonprofits, boosting remote teams’ ability tocollaborate and share files together online.
• Slack ranks among the top 5 for retail and nonprofits.

Businesses at Work

Apps at work:2021’s mostpopular apps

13

Tech sector prefers AWS and Google Workspace
Most Popular Apps by Number of Customers, among Tech Sector
Technology

Big or small, something for all: most popular apps
by customer size
For the first time, we look at our most popular apps filtered by company size. Larger
organizations (those with 2,000 or more employees) are more likely to deploy
Salesforce, Atlassian, DocuSign, and Box than smaller companies (those with under
2,000 employees). And the biggest difference in ranks? Larger companies rank SAP
Concur seven spots higher than smaller companies.
Smaller organizations are more likely to have Google Workspace and Slack (both ranked
three spots higher for smaller organizations), Zoom (two spots higher), and KnowBe4(four spots higher).

Businesses at Work

14

Think globally, win locally: top apps by region
Most Popular Apps by Region▲ HIGHER RANK THAN GLOBAL ▼ LOWER RANK THAN GLOBALGLOBAL

N. AMER.

EMEA

APAC

1

Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365

2

AWS

Salesforce ▲

AWS

AWS

3

Google Workspace

AWS ▼Google Workspace

Google Workspace

4

Salesforce

Zoom ▲

Atlassian Product Suite ▲Atlassian Product Suite ▲

5

Zoom

Google Workspace ▼Salesforce ▼Salesforce ▼6

Atlassian Product Suite

Atlassian Product Suite

Slack ▲

Zoom ▼

7

Slack

Slack

Zoom ▼Slack

8

DocuSign

DocuSign

DocuSign

GitHub ▲9

KnowBe4

KnowBe4

GitHub ▲DocuSign ▼10

Cisco Meraki

Box ▲Zendesk ▲Zendesk ▲11

Box

Cisco Meraki ▼Cisco Meraki ▼

Box

12

GitHub

GitHubJamf Pro ▲PANW GlobalProtect ▲13

Zendesk

SAP Concur ▲BambooHR ▲ServiceNow ▲14

Lucidchart

Lucidchart ▲Lucidchart

Mimecast ▲15

SAP Concur

Zendesk ▼Tableau ▲Xero ▲

Apps at work:2021’s mostpopular apps

What apps does Siberia use for remote work? What cloud apps can be seen in the
Himalayas? Some of the most recognized tech names in the U.S. are just as populararound the world. But a deeper dive into regional data yields some interesting insights into
how EMEA, APAC, and North America have different software needs and preferences.
Google Workspace’s impressive 38% year-over-year growth—which pushed it up into
the third place ranking worldwide—was largely due to its regional dominance amongcustomers in APAC and EMEA, where it saw a whopping 68% and 43% year-over-year
growth, respectively. This echoes last year’s dramatic rise of AWS to second place,similarly driven by rapid growth in EMEA and APAC.
It seems we can’t mention Google Workspace this year without Zoom and Slack.
Although Zoom’s SpaceX-like growth trajectory in the U.S. tailed off a little in 2021 as
the pandemic wore on, the video conferencing juggernaut is still rocketing skywardwith international customers, boasting 37% year-over-year growth in APAC and 45%

Businesses at Work

Apps at work:2021’s mostpopular apps

15

in EMEA. North America drives Zoom’s high global rank, where the app is now closing
in on AWS’ third-place position. Is it possible Zoom could become a top 3 app in North
America in 2022? Tune in this time next year to find out!
Collaboration maven Slack is also expanding its customer base dramatically outsideof North America, showing 40% year-over-year growth in APAC and 49% year-overyear growth in EMEA.
Other notable highlights on our world tour:• The Atlassian Product Suite, software development app GitHub, and customer
service suite Zendesk all rank higher in EMEA and APAC than they do in North
America.
• On the other side of the coin, KnowBe4 currently shows up only in the rankings
for North America.
• Four apps’ high popularity is specific to APAC: network security tool Palo Alto
Networks GlobalProtect (which hopped up one spot from 2020), workflow
platform ServiceNow, email security tool Mimecast, and small businessaccounting software Xero.
• Similarly, there are three apps that have (so far) earned top popularity honors only
in EMEA: mobile device management tool Jamf Pro, HR service BambooHR, anddata visualization software Tableau.
• BambooHR and Tableau in particular are new to the most popular apps by region
in this year’s report.

Stand up and be counted: most popular apps by unique users
Most Popular Apps by Number of Unique Users
Microsoft 365
WorkdayServiceNow

Number of Unique Users

Google Workspace
Salesforce
Zoom
ZscalerSlack
Atlassian Product Suite
Box
Cornerstone OnDemand
SAP SuccessFactors
SAP Concur
Ultimate Software
Webex by Cisco

1
1
1
7
7
7
9
9
9
8
8
8
6
6
6
0
0
0
01
01
01
02
02
02
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
02
02
02
t2
t2
t2
t2
t2
n2
b2
n2
b2
n2
b2
n2
b2
n2
b2
t2
n2
b2
Ju
Fe
Ju
Oc
Ju
Ju
Ju
Fe
Oc
Fe
Fe
Fe
Oc
Oc
Oc
Ju
Fe
Oc

Businesses at Work

Apps at work:2021’s mostpopular apps

16

Like snowflakes and fingerprints, each individual user is truly unique. When we
sort app usage by unique users, we get a closer look at which apps enjoy new or
enduring broad-based popularity.
The biggest story in unique-user popularity is a dynamic duo: Slack and Salesforce. Afteracquiring Slack in July of this year, Salesforce Chair and CEO Marc Benioff promised
they would create “the digital HQ that enables every organization to deliver customer andemployee success from anywhere.” Well, the data is in: Slack’s number of unique users
leapt 54% year over year, while Salesforce was right on their heels with 46% growth.
This rebuilding-the-economy year shows impressive growth in the number of uniqueusers across many different sectors. At the top of the chart, Microsoft 365 saw 36%
year-over-year growth, HR tool Workday saw 38%, and ServiceNow, a very strong
48%. The Atlassian Product Suite increased its unique user base by 44% as developers
were heads-down addressing new customer needs. Meanwhile, Zoom clocked in at an
impressive 42% increase year over year, even after its jaw-dropping 195% growth in 2020.
We call it the ‘Covid correction’—brands that initially dipped during the pandemic but
are now getting back to business. As remote workers hone new skills, Cornerstone
OnDemand, which dipped during the early pandemic months, has seen 21% growthsince February 29, 2020. And now that work travel is slowly but finally coming
back, SAP Concur returns to near its 2019 levels. (But it had better watch out forsecond-fastest-growing app TripActions, ready to nip at its suitcase wheels.)

Tech tidbit: Google Workspace boasts the largest number of unique users among techcustomers, growing 44% year over year, with a surging Salesforce in second place.

Businesses at Work

Apps at work:2021’s mostpopular apps

17

Companies are enthusiastic about giving backApps for Good, corporate + personal use

Apps that are helping people change the world
Most Popular Charitable Giving Apps by Number of Users Assigned
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Note: Data includes both personal and corporate apps.

With so many social and economic challenges around us these days, more and more
people are driven to donate money or volunteer their time to make their communities
and the world a better place. Giving USA publishes an Annual Report on Philanthropythat reports that Americans gave a record $471 billion in 2020 (counting combined
individual donations, corporate donations, bequests, and foundation giving), which
equates to more than $1.29 billion per day. Companies are stepping up to support
their employees’ desires to engage with causes they care about as well: We see 36%
year-over-year growth in the number of companies deploying at least one App for Goodthrough the Okta Integration Network.
This year we see a pronounced increase in the number of users assigned to Apps for
Good: This includes users assigned at the organizational level, as well as individuals
who chose to add the apps to their own dashboard. More than 1.2 million Okta users
have been assigned to these apps—a 29% increase since last year. The top 5 apps eachboast more than 10,000 assigned users!

Businesses at Work

Apps at work:2021’s mostpopular apps

18

The top performer is Calgary-based Benevity, which offers charitable donation
management and grant-management platforms. Benevity enjoyed a 40% increasein the number of assigned users since 2020 and a 173% increase since 2018. BrightFunds, a platform for workplace giving, volunteerism, and grant management, boasts
74% more assigned users this year than in 2020. The fourth most popular app isGood2Give, a community investment and giving platform that grew 129% year overyear. Catalyser, which allows organizations to manage and grow employee giving,
volunteering, fundraising, and pro bono work, showed the strongest growth with animpressive 189% increase in assigned users year over year. Learn more about why
and how companies are deploying Apps for Good in our blog series on social impact
in the workplace.

Businesses at Work

Fastest-growing
apps

19

New app, who dis?
The fastest-growing apps
Our annual list of the fastest-growing apps is a veritable Who’s Who of promising
up-and-comers. This year is no exception: 70% are brand new to the ranks,
including Notion, TripActions, Postman, Keeper, Airtable, Fivetran, and Gong.
And three returning fastest growers are still building on incredible growth: Miro(which boasted 301% year-over-year growth in 2020), Figma (236% year-overyear growth in 2020), and monday.com (149% year-over-year growth in 2020).

Fastest-Growing Apps by Number of Customers
240%

NotionTripActions

178%

Postman

173%
159%

Figma
Miro

152%
109%

Keeper
Airtable108%

Fivetran103%

monday.com

103%

Gong

101%

0%

50%

100%

150%

200%

250%

Although content collaboration tools were almost completely absent from the fastestgrowing list from 2017 to 2019, pandemic-driven remote work has made these apps
outright essential. For the first time ever, five different collaboration tools make the list:
Notion, Figma, Miro, Airtable, and monday.com. But our list has something for everyone.
This is the first time a sales tool (Gong) has reached the top ranks of fastest-growing
apps. Other top apps represent corporate travel and spend management (TripActions),
developer tools (Postman), security (Keeper), and data analytics (Fivetran).
How hot are these apps? The combined value of the top 5 fastest growing, all of whichboast more than 150% growth year over year, is over $33 billion-with-a-B. Top-ranked
Notion was valued at $10 billion in October 2021, the same valuation as Figma.
TripActions was valued at $7.25B in January 2021, and Postman was valued at $5.6B inAugust 2021. The list of fastest-growing apps has some bell-ringing IPOs in its future!

Businesses at Work

20

Fastest-Growing Apps by Unique Users
913%

Netskope
771%

Calendly
663%

Notion*560%

TripActions*
Postman*

363%

Intercom

348%

Segment

325%

VMware Workspace ONE

206%

1Password

198%

OfficeSpace

196%

0%

100%

200%

300%

400%

500%

600%

700%

800%

900%

1000%

* App is also one of the fastest-growing by number of customers.

Fastest-growing
apps

Looking at the fastest-growing apps by number of unique users, we see an eyepopping year-over-year gain of 913% in unique users accessing cloud-native security
solution Netskope; Okta and Netskope worked together closely to enhance system
connections to meet increased demand from the shift to remote work. Calendly, amodern scheduling platform which raised $350 million for a $3 billion valuation thisyear, boasts a 771% year-over-year increase in unique users. Hats off to our crossoverwinners: the third, fourth, and fifth fastest-growing apps by unique users (Notion,
TripActions, and Postman) also grab spots on the list of fastest growing by number ofcustomers. More year-over-year growth worth talking about: customer engagement andsupport tool Intercom garnered 348% growth in unique users since 2020, and developer
tool Twilio Segment, 325%. We welcome security tools VMware Workspace ONE
and 1Password, and integrated workplace management systems (IWMS) OfficeSpace
to the ranks as well. (You can see the dramatic shifts in monthly use of OfficeSpaceand other IWMS tools below.)

Businesses at Work

Fastest-growing
apps

21

Winners, by what and where: fastestgrowing apps by industry and region
Fastest-Growing Apps, by Region
RegionBy Number of Customers

By Unique Users

N. AMER.

TripActions

173%

Calendly

768%

EMEA

DocuSign

70%

GitHub128%

APAC

GoogleWorkspace

68%

Zoom

231%

Looking at app use by region, some interesting trends bubble to the surface. In EMEA,
the top performers are DocuSign and GitHub. The growth of DocuSign mirrors the sheer
volume of new e-transactions, as well as organizations’ need for reliable compliance andprivacy. According to George Mironescu, senior research manager from IDC, “GitHub’s
growth comes on the back of a more general push towards software development
across Europe, where 35% of organizations surveyed by IDC indicate plans to increase
their 2022 investment in software dev and delivery compared to 2021.” In APAC,
seeing Google Workspace and Zoom at the top reveals that companies are arming
employees with collaboration tools. North America shows increasing trends in travel
and connection, with top spots going to TripActions and Calendly.

Businesses at Work

Fastest-growing
apps

22

Fastest-Growing Apps, by Industry
Industry

By Number of Customers

By Unique Users

Technology

Notion250%

TripActions

1647%

Finance &Banking

DigiCert

70%

Envoy

575%

Nonprofit

Instagram

47%

SurveyMonkey

93%

RetailGitHub

48%

GitHub106%

Healthcare &PharmaSalesforce

51%

Salesforce

511%

Education

GoogleWorkspace

36%

Zoom

36%

Government

MSFT 365

33%

MSFT 365

75%

Breaking out our fastest-growing apps by sectors shows us what these industries areprioritizing. The tech sector is focused heavily on collaboration and travel planning:
TripActions attracts a 1647% surge in unique users. We note that tech is the only
industry prioritizing a travel tool. Finance and banking are focused on digital security,
as well as managing visitors or employees as they physically return to offices. (Moreabout workplace management trends below.) Nonprofits are building connections with
Instagram and SurveyMonkey. Retail is leaning into app development with GitHub.
Healthcare and pharmaceutical companies are overwhelmingly moving to Salesforce.
Education is focused on collaboration with Google Workspace and Zoom. The continued
growth of Zoom at the unique user level is impressive after our 2020 Businesses at
Work (from Home) report noted that, among customers in the education sector, on
March 23, 2020, Zoom had 1941% growth compared to 28 days prior… and of course
Zoom continued to attract users throughout the pandemic. And finally, the government
sector reaches for Microsoft 365 for their productivity needs.

Businesses at Work

Fastest-growing
apps

23

Highly-regulated sectors turn to Okta
Workforce Identity Customers

CIAM Customers

Nonprofit

65%

Government

125%

Media &
Communication

38%

Wholesale Trade108%

Government

36%

Insurance

94%

Organizations in highly-regulated sectors such as government, insurance, financeand banking, and healthcare and pharmaceuticals are increasingly turning to Okta for
identity services to protect their end users. Okta has seen over 125% year-over-year
growth in the number of government customers it provides with security for end users,
94% year-over-year growth for insurance, 71% for finance and banking, and 59% forhealthcare and pharmaceuticals. Among workforce identity customers, nonprofits,
media and communications, and government are adding security more quickly thanother sectors.
Some organizations are seeking cyber insurance to mitigate the risks of cyberattacks, data breaches, and business disruption. In order to qualify, certain
criteria must be met. Cyber insurance providers were already requiring theircustomers to implement specific security controls, like end-to-end encryption
and anti-phishing awareness, in order to renew and avoid a change in premium
and/or coverage. Now, the latest requirement many cyber insurance providers are
requiring of their customers is to implement multi-factor authentication (MFA).
In August 2021, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) issued
guidance that provides financial institutions with examples of effective authentication
and access risk management principles and practices. They recognized the importanceof the financial institution’s risk assessment to determine appropriate access andauthentication practices, and they discussed how multi-factor authentication, or
controls of equivalent strength, can more effectively mitigate risks.
In EMEA, the transition period to implement Strong Customer Authentication under
PSD2 closed in December 2020 which drives MFA adoption in the banking space. The
UK is taking a similar approach, but delayed adoption until 2022.
Consumers increasingly expect the companies they interact with to do more toprotect their digital identity and prevent credential-based threats. We expect the 2021
executive order on cybersecurity will not only drive identity adoption with government
contractors, but will also encourage new security regulations within other industries.

Businesses at Work

The best tools
for the job

24

App usage: best of breed wins the show
Whether you are a software developer or a surgeon, a marketer or a mechanic, youwant the best tools for your job. As companies struggle to retain workers in a fluid
marketplace, they are especially motivated to arm their employees with the top tools
they need to be competitive: according to the Adobe Workfront report, 49% of U.S.
workers said they would leave a company if they were frustrated by their workplace tech.
Companies continue to deploy an increasing number of apps and tools, and supplement
bundles that aren’t meeting their needs. Many organizations still commit to Microsoft
365, but they deploy seemingly “redundant” functionality by adding apps such as
Zoom, Slack, and Box. An increasing number double-bundle with Google Workspace
as well. The olden days of a company choosing to be a “Microsoft shop” are long gone,as many companies that deploy Microsoft 365 add on advanced functionality fromnon-Microsoft providers such as AWS and Salesforce.

App usage on the rise: adding better tools to the shedIt makes good business sense to consolidate functionality whenever possible, but as
new needs pop up—especially unexpected needs from an unexpected pandemic—organizations need to solve problems quickly. Sometimes a new app is the best solution.
The average number of corporate and personal apps organizations deploy increased
from 88 to 89 this year, contributing to an increase of 24% since 2016. Looking at theheaviest app users, 10% of our customers deploy an average of 202 apps each, up
from 199 last year.
Larger companies deploy more apps: companies with 2,000 employees or more deploy
an average of 187. Companies with under 2,000 employees, by comparison, deploy
72 apps on average, as they typically don’t face the same range of needs as larger
organizations (at least not yet).
We can also see the growing need for apps over time by looking at our customers’ app
usage journey. Newer customers tend to initially deploy fewer apps through the Okta
Integration Network, then add more over time. Customers who have been with Okta
for less than a year adopt an average of 22 apps. In contrast, customers who havebeen with Okta for four years or more deploy nearly 10 times that, with an average of
210 apps per customer (up from 207 last year). And looking at age and size together:large companies that have been with Okta for more than four years deploy an averageof 383 apps, up from 194 in 2017.

Businesses at Work

The best tools
for the job

25

The data shows distinct differences by region as well: among North Americanorganizations, the average number of apps deployed is 97, while the average is 66 in
EMEA, and 56 in APAC.
Note: Data includes Okta Integration Network and non-Okta Integration Network, personal andcorporate apps.

Battle of the bundles: Google gobbles greater growth
No matter how you slice the data, the two most popular productivity suites are bothgrowing, but Google is growing faster. Among Okta customers, Google Workspaceboasts an incredible 38% increase, while Microsoft 365 shows 29% growth year overyear. Sifting by unique users delivers even more impressive results, with an increaseof 42% for Google and 36% for Microsoft.
Microsoft 365

Google Workspace

Year-over-year growth bynumber of customers

29%

38%

Year-over-year growth bynumber of unique users

36%

42%

We wondered if small or large companies are driving the growth of these suites.
Looking at the increase in Google Workspace adoption, we see that the number oflarge companies grew 23%, vs 40% for small companies. For Microsoft 365, thosenumbers were 18% for large companies and 31% for small companies.

Businesses at Work

The best tools
for the job

26

Friends for Clippy: best-of-breed
apps get invited to the party
Even with constrained budgets, organizations are adopting diverse sets of tools in order
to best address their employees’ productivity needs. By adding best-of-breed apps on
top of productivity suites, companies can build a platform that accounts for all theircollaboration and security requirements. Tracking this trend over time, it continues
to grow as more customers find value in supplementing Microsoft 365. Apps such as
Zoom, Slack, and Google Workspace provide cutting-edge functionality and usability
that companies increasingly view as table stakes for collaboration.

Okta's Microsoft 365 Customers with Best-of-Breed Apps
AWS
Box
Google Workspace
Salesforce
Slack
Smartsheet
Tableau
Zoom
0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

Okta’s Microsoft 365 Customers with App
2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Note: Salesforce data for 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2021 are the same at the time of the report.
Smartsheet data for 2019 and 2020 are the same at the time of this report.

50%

Businesses at Work

The best tools
for the job

27

Best-of-breed apps dominate their category for the standalone functionality they
provide. We look at the percentage of Okta’s customers who deploy Microsoft 365
to see what additional best-of-breed apps round out their dashboards. This includes
apps that supplement the basic Microsoft offering (Zoom, Slack, and Box), tools andplatforms with enhanced functionality (Salesforce, AWS, Tableau, and Smartsheet), andfinally, the ultimate supplement: competing suite Google Workspace. 33% of Okta’s
Microsoft 365 customers have four or more best-of-breed apps, up from 20% in 2017.
On the collaboration front, Zoom was deployed by 45% of Okta’s Microsoft 365
customers as they opted to supplement Microsoft Teams. Popular team communication
platform Slack saw a boost in shared customer base with Microsoft 365, up one
percentage point from 2020 to 33%. And 24% of Okta’s Microsoft 365 customers
also deploy Box, a direct competitor to OneDrive.
The days of companies locking in to one vendor for all their tools are long gone. A
growing number of companies choose best of breed for advanced functionality as well.
45% of Okta’s Microsoft 365 customers deploy Salesforce, 43% choose AWS, 16% opt
for Smartsheet, and another 16% use Tableau.
Companies like to get their Google on, as an increasing number pair Microsoft 365
with Google Workspace, a combo that jumped from 36% in 2020 to 38% this year.
When we look at this same data by region, we see a shift to cloud-based collaborationand infrastructure. In EMEA, Okta’s Microsoft 365 customers have an even stronger
affinity with Google Workspace (41%) than we see globally, as well as AWS (43%).
EMEA also sees a big jump in both Zoom (up three points year over year to 35%) andSlack (up three points year over year to 32%).
In APAC, combined use of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace jumped a whopping
seven percentage points to 33%. Looking at longer trends, APAC has shown the largest
increase in use of Salesforce since 2016, with a 10-point increase to 40%.

Businesses at Work

The best tools
for the job
Organizations today understand that
one-size-fits-all software solutions
are not sufficient for addressing coreproductivity and security challenges
in the workplace. That’s why we
see Okta customers increasingly
supplement their bundled applications
with other industry-leadingcollaboration tools like Slack, Box,and Zoom.
Diya Jolly
Chief Product Officer, Okta

28

Businesses at WorkThe rise ofmulti-cloud29

Your computing platform forecast: increasingly cloudy
Businesses have clear visibility around the importance of cloud computing. Being able
to access workflows and productivity tools from any location, on any device, was thestretch goal that suddenly turned into a business imperative. And nobody’s looking back.
But an interesting trend we’ve identified is that cloud migration isn’t just increasing—it’sdoubling, and complexifying. While we first called out the trend in our 2019 report, we
continue to see more organizations are choosing not to put all their cloud computing
in one virtual basket, and are utilizing multiple cloud platforms. Of course, each new
adoption requires effort toward a secure and seamless integration.
The 30,000-foot view: AWS is the most common cloud platform by a very large margin,
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is growing the fastest, and the combination of those
two is the favorite pairing for the increasing number of companies embracing multicloud. Here’s a deeper dive.

Gold, silver, and bronze linings: the most popular cloud platforms
Most Popular Cloud Platforms as a Service and Administration Tools
Cloud Platform Adoption with AWS Removed for Scale
Amazon Web
Services (AWS)
Microsoft Azure
Google Cloud
Platform (GCP)
TwilioHerokuMongoDB Cloud

Number of Customers

Dell Boomi
Terraform Cloud
Oracle Hyperion EPM
Cloud Services
Rackspace

1
1
1
7
7
7
9
9
9
8
8
8
6
6
6
0
20
20
01
01
01
02
02
02
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
02
20
20
t2
t2
t2
t2
t2
n2
b2
n2
b2
n2
b2
n2
b2
n2
b2
t2
n
b
c
c
c
c
c
e
u
e
e
e
e
u
u
u
u
c
e
u
J
F
J
O
J
J
J
F
O
F
F
F
O
O
O
J
F
O

Businesses at WorkThe rise ofmulti-cloud30

AWS remains the runaway favorite cloud platform. Among customers protecting acloud platform through Okta, AWS enjoyed 32% growth this year, contributing to a
total increase of 152% since 2018. This top cloud platform counts more than six times
as many customers as its nearest rival, Microsoft Azure. In contrast, Azure saw 21%
year-over-year growth, and 116% since 2018.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is racing to catch up, boasting an increase of 40% since
2020—a whopping 365% from where it ranked in 2018. At their current rate of growth,
it may claim the number-two rank in the next few years.
San Francisco-based Twilio and Heroku and New York’s MongoDB Cloud round out
the field of the six most popular cloud platforms by number of customers. While its
trend line is dwarfed by AWS, MongoDB Cloud has actually grown 131% over the past
year. And a shout-out to Terraform Cloud by HashiCorp, which burst onto the scene
and is quickly climbing the ranks: in the past six months, this eighth-ranked platform
has grown 70%!

More clouds on the horizon
Customers Deploying a Cloud Platform
92%

Oct 2017

8%

Oct 2018

88%

11%

.5%

Oct 2019

87%

12%

1%

Oct 2020

86%

13%

1%

Oct 2021

86%

13%

1%

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Number of Cloud Platforms
1

2

3

As companies move away from legacy and on-premise platforms, the trend toward
greater cloud adoption can evolve into a need for more diverse cloud platforms. We
see that 40% of our customers integrate at least one cloud platform with Okta, up
from 33% in 2017. This year we see that 14% of customers deploying a cloud platform
have in fact deployed two or even more—a number that has increased significantly
from 8% in 2017.

Businesses at WorkThe rise ofmulti-cloud

31

Deploying a cloud platform is not a decision to take lightly, so why would a company
need more than one? One reason could be the company’s cloud computing history:
a particular cloud platform might have been the best service offered at one time,
but another was later added to fill additional needs, or acquired through a merger.
Another is cost efficiency: some software vendors charge less to run their programsin their proprietary cloud environment, and it may make financial sense to utilize thatenvironment in addition to an existing cloud platform. Yet another driver is bettersupport for specific needs: AWS, for instance, has specific capabilities not available
from other providers. Still another reason could be “best-of-breed” functionality: GCP
is renowned for its Kubernetes and AI service. And finally, some companies find it
difficult to move assets to a different provider to consolidate their cloud computing.
Regardless of the motivation, there is a growing segment of companies that increasingly
deploys a multi-cloud strategy.

Customers Deploying Multiple Cloud Platforms
Okta Customers Deploying a Cloud Platform Combo

3.0%

2.6%
2.4%

2.0%

1.0%

0.5%
0.1%
0%
n
Ju

18
20

g
Au

18
20

1
1
9
9
9
8
0
21
21
21
19
19
19
18
20
20
20
20
20
02
02
01
01
01
01
02
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
r2
r2
t2
t2
c2
c2
n
b
g
n
b
g
r2
t
c
n
b
g
c
c
ct
p
p
e
e
e
e
u
u
u
c
u
p
e
e
A
J
A
J
F
F
O
O
O
D
D
A
A
A
Ju
F
O
D
Au

AWS & GCP

Microsoft Azure & AWS

Microsoft Azure, AWS & GCP

Microsoft Azure & GCP

Businesses at WorkThe rise ofmulti-cloud32

Among organizations that deploy more than one cloud environment, we see a clear“best couple” in preferred platform pairings. The spotlight at this multi-cloud mixer isfocused on... drum roll please... AWS and GCP. Since 2018, the percentage of customers
deploying both AWS and GCP solutions has more than doubled, rising from 1.2% to 2.6%.
Despite the overwhelming popularity of AWS, as evidenced in our most popular cloud
platforms chart, being paired with AWS is not enough to make every combo a winner.
The percentage of companies deploying AWS in addition to Azure actually decreased
over the same period, falling from 2.8% in 2018 to 2.4% now, pulling this combo outof the top spot.

Businesses at Work

Supporting
dynamic work

33

Covid Phase 3: companies areinvesting more in their people
People are our greatest asset, says every company ever.
When companies first began to respond to the pandemic, they focused on adding
technology that could support remote work. As more of our work and life experiences
moved online, the second phase of evolution focused on seamless and secure customer
experiences.
Now, well into the pandemic, organizations are increasingly focusing on ways tosupport their employees. This past year, workers got burnt out from working aroundthe clock in their homes and many left their jobs in pursuit of deeper purpose and better
work/life balance. As we begin 2022, the U.S. job market is on the upswing, with the
unemployment rate falling to a pandemic low and job creation on the rise. With thefocus turned to employees, employers are overhauling employee experiences as somereturn to offices and others choose to stay remote.
The data speaks for itself: companies continue to invest heavily in platforms to support
their employees. With many offices remaining closed, organizations doubled down
this year on their outreach to remote workforces by deploying more HR tools, andadded a new focus on improving employee engagement to better unite geographicallyscattered teams.
Another trend we see concerns the long-awaited physical return of worker bees back to
the hive. Looking at the change in usage at the unique user level for integrated workplace
management system tools, we can infer that not all, but many of the employees thatleft en masse when the pandemic began are beginning to return to the office. And thecontinued growth of remote access solutions shows us that companies are continuing
to support their workforces for times they need to, or choose to, work remotely.

Businesses at Work34

Let’s get engaged: the most popular HR tools
Most Popular HR Tools
WorkdayBambooHR
Ultimate Software
Lattice
Culture Amp
Paylocity
SAP SuccessFactors

Number of Customers

Namely15FiveTriNet

1
1
7
7
7
9
9
9
8
8
8
6
6
6
0
0
0
21
01
01
01
02
02
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
02
02
02
20
t2
t2
t2
t2
n2
b2
n2
b2
n2
b2
n2
b2
n2
b2
t2
n2
b2
ct
e
u
c
e
u
Ju
Fe
J
Oc
Ju
Ju
Ju
F
O
Fe
Fe
Fe
Oc
Oc
Oc
J
F
O

Supporting
dynamic work

The human resources category is still growing at full throttle. Workday remains theglobal category leader, but second-place BambooHR is closing in fast. The self-described“HR software for SMBs” has seen 40% growth since 2020, and 189% growth since
2018. BambooHR has been the #1 HR app in the tech industry since 2017, and now
claims 71% more customers than second-place Workday. Regionally, BambooHR is
ranked #1 in APAC, and in EMEA where it has grown 70% year over year. In EMEA,
BambooHR boasts more than twice as many customers as the second-most-popular
HR tool: the casually named bob. (Bob just grabbed the second-place rank in EMEA
from Workday in the fall of 2021.)
While Ultimate Software still holds the third spot in the global HR ranks, we see thestrongest growth in tools such as Lattice and Culture Amp, which focus on employee
engagement—a growing concern for today’s distributed, remote teams. Lattice (upthree spots to steal the #4 rank from Culture Amp this year) boasts 72% growth overthe past year, and 260% since 2019. (We’re not surprised, as Lattice was the sixthfastest-growing app in last year’s report.) Neck and neck is Culture Amp, close behindwith 56% year-over-year growth and 173% growth since 2019. We also welcome thenew entry TriNet, another tool targeting small businesses.

Businesses at Work35

Get back to work! Top integrated workplace management tools
Most Popular Integrated Workplace Management Systems Tools by Number of Unique Users
OfficeSpace
Envoy
Robin
SpaceIQ
Teem

Number of Unique Users

Serraview
Proxyclick
Openpath Security
WhosOnLocationiLobby

1
1
1
7
7
7
9
9
9
8
8
8
6
6
6
0
0
0
01
01
01
02
02
02
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
02
02
02
t2
t2
t2
t2
t2
n2
b2
n2
b2
n2
b2
n2
b2
n2
b2
t2
n2
b2
Ju
Fe
Ju
Oc
Ju
Ju
Ju
Fe
Oc
Fe
Fe
Fe
Oc
Oc
Oc
Ju
Fe
Oc

Note: This data includes unique users from a cohort of companies that were Okta customers between March 1, 2020, and October 31, 2021, and had
an instance of an IWMS app with users assigned.

Supporting
dynamic work

The pandemic brought back teenage nightmares for many organizations’ HR directors:
What if you threw a party and nobody came? The category of integrated workplace
management tools (which help organizations optimize their use of facilities andinfrastructure) provides some interesting data to precisely document the slow returnof employees to office spaces after the unprecedented exodus forced by the pandemic.
Category leader OfficeSpace provides the starkest evidence of the unprecedented
corporate shutdown at the outset of the pandemic: their unique users fell by a cataclysmic
69% from the end of January to the end of May 2020. Runner-up Envoy showed analmost identical percentage drop of 68% in the same timeframe.
But proving the adage it’s not how far you fall, it’s how you bounce back, the category’s
top performers are again showing strong growth in 2021, reflecting their Covid
correction. Envoy already sets new high marks for unique users 25% higher than prepandemic, and OfficeSpace approaches their pre-pandemic level. Third- and fourthranked Robin and SpaceIQ have rebounded significantly, as well.

Businesses at Work

Supporting
dynamic work

36

Pulling back to look at the entire Okta customer base, we see an overall increase in theuse of IWMS tools. OfficeSpace ranks as our tenth-fastest-growing app by number of
unique users with 196% year-over-year growth, and Envoy is close behind with 185%.
Turning to rankings by number of customers, Envoy leads the pack with more than
three times the customers of second-ranked OfficeSpace. Envoy’s Okta customer
base more than tripled in size since 2018, while OfficeSpace shows a very impressive
180% growth in the same timeframe. (And yeah, Lumbergh is still gonna need you tocome in on Saturday.)

Encryption hits the road: remote access solutions keep dynamic work rolling
Most Popular Remote Access Solutions

Palo Alto Networks
GlobalProtect
Cisco AnyConnect
AWS Client VPN
Fortinet FortiGate
Zscaler
Netskope
OpenVPN

Number of Customers

Check Point
Pulse Secure
Barracuda Networks

1
1
1
7
7
7
9
9
9
8
8
8
6
6
6
0
0
0
01
01
01
02
02
02
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
02
02
02
t2
t2
t2
t2
t2
n2
b2
n2
b2
n2
b2
n2
b2
n2
b2
t2
n2
b2
Ju
Fe
Ju
Oc
Ju
Ju
Ju
Fe
Oc
Fe
Fe
Fe
Oc
Oc
Oc
Ju
Fe
Oc

Businesses at Work

Supporting
dynamic work

37

The huge boom in usage of remote access solutions after the pandemic hit wasn’t asurprise, but what’s notable is the continued growth in the sector (albeit inevitably ata much slower rate) as employees return to the office. Facilitating dynamic workforces
in a range of locations is proving to be an essential endeavor for many organizations,leading to an increase in the adoption of tools that make remote work safe andsecure—from anywhere. With the continuing need to support a distributed workforce,
Palo Alto Networks GlobalProtect, which provides enterprise security protection tomobile users, is still the clear category leader, boasting growth of 42% since 2020
and 434% since 2018. Cisco AnyConnect, which provides secure endpoint access,isn’t far behind, showing 38% year-over-year growth (and 424% since 2018). This
year has a shake-up for third place, with AWS Client VPN, which allows companies
to easily deploy a scalable client VPN solution, jumping four spots since last yearwith impressive 190% year-over-year growth. This helped AWS Client VPN edge past
Fortinet FortiGate, which still turns in a very respectable showing with 66% growthsince 2020. Standalone Zero Trust network access (ZTNA) solution Zscaler ranks
fifth, ahead of Netskope and OpenVPN.
While organizations are clearly intending to keep providing secure remote access fortheir dynamic workforces, it will be interesting to see what 2022 holds for stronger
security beyond VPN.

Businesses at Work

Security at work38

It’s 2022. Private citizens can now go to outer space. We have self-driving cars andself-driving vacuums. Drones can deliver our dinner. We do retinal scans at the airport.
It’s almost like we’re living in a sci-fi movie. And yet, when it comes to protecting our
personal data, the most popular password of 2021 was, wait for it… 123456. *sigh*Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is estimated to prevent 99.9% of account takeover
incidents, but use of MFA isn’t universal. A small number of organizations continue tosupport forms of basic authentication that can’t be protected by MFA, leaving theminherently more vulnerable. We dug into Okta ThreatInsight data to demonstrate that
attackers are targeting Microsoft Legacy Authentication methods of access at muchhigher rates than modern authentication.
Looking deeper into MFA, there is huge variation in the strength of factors deployed bycustomers. We look at both our workforce identity customers as well as our customers
that deploy customer identity access management (CIAM) for their own end users
to uncover factor trends.
Our data shows that both workforce and CIAM customers are generally trending awayfrom weaker knowledge-based factors toward stronger possession-based factors such
as Okta Verify and biometric factors that support WebAuthn.
Beyond MFA, Okta customers have demonstrated that they are sold on the vision of
Zero Trust, and are rapidly progressing their journey from unified access management tocontextual-based access. Customers are increasingly assessing the security behaviors
of users and factoring in other risk signals at authentication.

Businesses at Work

Security at work

39

Modern authentication is critical:
hackers go for easy targets
Two things can be true at the same time: attackers are smart, and attackers are lazy.
And guess what makes for an easy target? Legacy Authentication.
This year we wanted to test the hypothesis that attackers are deliberately targeting
Microsoft 365 accounts in organizations that allow Legacy Authentication. Microsoft
calls “Legacy Authentication” any method to authenticate to Microsoft 365 that doesn’t
support MFA. Accounts with Legacy Authentication enabled are far more vulnerable
to credential stuffing because the security of the account relies on the strength ofuser-defined passwords. Microsoft has given Microsoft 365 customers until October
2022 to retire this method of authentication.
So, we compared Okta customers that allow Legacy Authentication with those that
don’t. Our measure of comparison was the ratio of requests detected as malicious by
Okta ThreatInsight over successful authentication events.
The data suggests that attackers are targeting accounts using Microsoft Legacy
Authentication to access Microsoft 365 at rates 10 or more times higher than thoseusing only modern authentication protocols.

Organizations using Microsoft Legacy
Authentication on average face a 53 times
higher ratio of threats to authentications

On average across all industries, organizations using Microsoft Legacy Authentication
face a 53 times higher ratio of threats to authentications compared to organizations
that do not allow Legacy Authentication. When we look at specific industries, we see:• Government organizations using Microsoft Legacy Authentication face a 104
times higher ratio of threats to authentications.
• Education organizations using Microsoft Legacy Authentication face a 65 times
higher ratio of threats to authentications.

Businesses at Work

Security at work40

• Wholesale trade businesses using Microsoft Legacy Authentication face a 58
times higher ratio of threats to authentications.
• Healthcare organizations using Microsoft Legacy Authentication face a 36 times
higher ratio of threats to authentications.
We found that there is at least a 90% reduction in the ratio of threats to authentications
when an organization denies access using Microsoft Legacy Authentication in accesspolicies. Depending on the industry, this can be as high as 99%. So it appears our
hypothesis was correct: the attackers behind large-scale credential-based attacks
are far more likely to target orgs that support Legacy Authentication.

Leveraging Modern Authentication Reduces
the Ratio of Threats to Authentications
Reduction in ratio of threats detected to authentications when
Microsoft Legacy Authentication is not enabledTechnology

99.6%

Government

99.0%

Education

98.5%

Wholesale Trade

98.3%

Real Estate, Rental, and Leasing

98.2%

Energy, Mining, Oil, and Gas

97.9%

Professional Services

97.9%

Retail

97.9%
97.2%

Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals
Transportation and Warehousing

96.7%

Nonprofit

96.6%

Manufacturing

96.5%

Construction, Engineering, and Architecture

96.5%

Media and Communications

96.4%

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation

96.2%
96.1%

Finance and Banking
89.6%

Insurance

80%

100%

Percent Reduction in Ratio of Threats to Authentications

The sky isn’t necessarily falling, but we want to help provide solutions. Check out thisguide to identifying and deprecating Legacy Authentication.

Businesses at Work

41

Security at work
This exercise demonstrates what
security professionals alreadyintuitively know: attackers direct theirattention toward the path of least
resistance, and accounts without MFA
protection make for a much easierpath. Not only are accounts without
MFA more vulnerable to auth-based
attacks like credential stuffing, butthey are actively targeted moreaggressively by attackers.
Marc Rogers
Senior Director of Cybersecurity, Okta

The rise of multi-factor: stronger
security vs factor friction
Let’s first look at trends broken out by specific factors.
Among all customers authenticating with a factor, WebAuthn has risen from 2% in 2019,
to 12% in 2020, to 16% in 2021. WebAuthn replaces passwords with a strong, convenient,and unphishable factor that authenticates users to web services via their device(e.g., Apple TouchID, Windows Hello) or physical keys. Workforce identity customers in
the tech sector, those traditional trendsetters, show the highest adoption of WebAuthn
at 27%, up from just 4% in 2019. Close behind the tech sector, WebAuthn is usedmost by media and communications (26%) and retail (21%). We can likely expect evenmore traction from WebAuthn now that FastPass, Okta’s passwordless technology,
is generally available. (Going forward in our data, WebAuthn is rolled up with U2F andYubiKey in the grouping of “security key or biometric factors.”)

Businesses at Work

Security at work

42

Use of Okta Verify (including Okta Verify with push notifications) continues to risesteadily. Overall, 85% of customers use Okta Verify, up from 82% in 2020 and 74%
in 2018. Okta Verify is much more popular among workforce customers (86%) than
CIAM customers (39%).
Five other one-time push (OTP) authenticators have remained mostly flat since 2018:
Google Authenticator at 42%, Duo Security at 8%, RSA SecurID at 1%, HMAC-based
one-time passwords (HOTP) at .5%, and Symantec VIP at .4%. (Going forward in ourdata, these factors are rolled up as “other OTP authenticators” in our charts.)
Use of email as a factor has grown among both CIAM and workforce customers
throughout the pandemic. During the pandemic, organizations were often unable toprovide all their employees with company-issued devices for other factors, driving
some increase in the use of email as a factor. Now 12% of customers use email as afactor, up from only 7% in 2020.
SMS factors, which provide a weaker level of protection, are showing a small decline
in usage, dropping from 49% last year to 47% this year. SMS remains the most-usedfactor among CIAM customers, but is dropping steadily among workforce customers.
(Going forward in our data, we group SMS with voice call authentication for a factor
grouping of “SMS/call.”)
Security questions, notoriously one of the weakest factor options, are similarly on
the decline, dropping from 18% in 2018 to 13% today for both workforce and CIAM
customers.
Overall, a key difference we see between workforce identity and CIAM factor trends isthat any factor offered to customers tends to stick for a longer period of time. While anemployer can easily replace or complement existing authentication methods with new,stronger factors as they become available, it can be difficult to motivate customers to
opt in to those changes unless they are clearly presented with an option that is bothmore secure and more convenient. In other words: bring on that passwordless future!

Businesses at Work

Security at work

43

Factor grouping

Factor included

Email

Email

Okta Verify

Okta Verify (including Okta Verify
with Push Notifications)

Other OTP Authenticators

Duo Security, Google Authenticator,
HOTP, RSA SecurID, Symantec VIPSecurity Key or Biometric

WebAuthn (FIDO 2.0), U2F (FIDO 1.0), YubiKey

Security Question

Security Question

SMS/Call

SMS, Voice Call

Third-Party IdPThird-Party IdP

In the workplace: factoring in the threat environment
Okta’s Workforce Identity Customers Deploying Each Factor Grouping
90%
85%
80%
75%

Percentage of Customers

70%
65%
60%
55%
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
p
Se

18
20

18
20
ov
N

n
Ja

19
20

Okta Verify1

19
20
ar
M

19
20
ay
M

9
01
l2
Ju

p
Se

19
20

Other OTP Authenticators2

1

Okta Verify, Okta Verify with Push Notifications

19
20
ov
N

n
Ja

20
20

SMS or Voice Call

2

20
20
ar
M

20
20
ay
M

0
02
l2
Ju

p
Se

20
20

20
20
ov
N

Security Key or Biometric3

Duo Security, Google Authenticator, HOTP, RSA SecurID, Symantec VIP

n
Ja

21
20

21
20
ar
M

Security Question

3

21
20
y
a
M

1
02
l2
u
J

Email

WebAuthn (FIDO 2.0), U2F (FIDO 1.0), YubiKey

p
Se

21
20

21
20
v
o
N

Third-Party IdPBusinesses at Work

Security at work44

While any second factor is better than relying on a username and password, Okta
has long preached the importance of choosing stronger, higher assurance factors toprovide superior protection to online accounts.
Our workforce identity customers agree. We continue to observe a welcome decline
in the use of weaker SMS/call and security questions as authentication factors by
our workforce customers, and corresponding growth in the use of stronger security
alternatives.
Use of SMS/call authentication has declined from 53% in 2018 to 47% of customers
today. Among tech workforce customers, only 34% are using SMS/call authentication,
down from 47% in 2018.
The use of security questions as a factor has dropped from 18% in 2018 to 12% today
for workforce customers. Meanwhile, the use of email has grown to 10% today, up
from 2% in February 2020. Its popularity rose with the pandemic and has not subsided.
Use of other OTP authenticators is on a slight decline, used by 49% of customers today
compared to 55% in 2018. Among tech customers, 67% use other OTP authenticators,
compared to 74% in 2018.
All signs are pointing to a passwordless future: Okta Verify (including Okta Verify withpush notifications) is now used by 86% of workforce customers (versus 74% in 2018),
but rarely is it relied upon exclusively. Security key and biometric factors have grownin popularity, from 9% in 2018 to 21% today. Among the tech sector, use of security
key/biometric factors reaches 30%.

Businesses at Work45

Customer-facing apps: it’s always been about choice
Okta’s CIAM Customers Deploying Each Factor Grouping
70%
65%
60%

Percentage of Customers

55%
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
p
Se

18
20

18
20
ov
N

n
Ja

19
20

SMS or Voice Call

1

19
20
ar
M

19
20
ay
M

Email

9
01
l2
Ju

p
Se

19
20

Okta Verify1

Okta Verify, Okta Verify with Push Notifications

Security at work

19
20
ov
N

n
Ja

20
20

20
20
ar
M

20
20
ay
M

Other OTP Authenticators2

2

0
02
l2
Ju

p
Se

20
20

20
20
ov
N

Security Question

Duo Security, Google Authenticator, HOTP, RSA SecurID, Symantec VIP

n
Ja

21
20

21
20
ar
M

21
20
ay
M

1
02
l2
Ju

Security Key or Biometric3

3

p
Se

21
20

21
20
ov
N

Third-Party IdP

WebAuthn (FIDO 2.0), U2F (FIDO 1.0), YubiKey

Looking specifically at customer-facing apps, the shift from SMS/call authentication isless pronounced. In many scenarios, organizations must balance customer experienceand ease of use with security.
It’s true that any second factor is better than only offering one. In fact, we have seena sharp decline in the number of organizations deploying only one factor, from 58% in2018 to 39% today. Organizations deploying customer-facing apps historically offer
their end users the broadest mix of readily available factors possible, with SMS/call (themost common), email, and Okta Verify (including Okta Verify with push notifications)as the leading options.
Interestingly, while the use of email is leveling off for workforce access, it’s growing
as a factor for CIAM: 43% now, versus 32% in 2020 and 26% way back in 2018. Use of
security questions is down from 17% in 2019 to just 8% today, and while the security key
and biometrics category appears flat, 3% of CIAM customers now deploy WebAuthn(FIDO 2.0)—a 50% increase from 2020.

Businesses at Work

Security at work

46

Marching toward Zero Trust:
preparing for a secure future
A Zero Trust approach takes the position that the only way to truly protect data is totreat all user traffic as untrusted. ​​Spurred on by Covid-19, remote work has driven
the adoption and implementation of Zero Trust. An Okta survey of over 600 global
business and security leaders reveals that in 2020, 41% of organizations said they
were working on a Zero Trust initiative or intended to start one in the near future. In
2021, that number spiked to 90%.
Looking at Okta’s Zero Trust Maturity Curve, the survey revealed that the APAC
region has progressed by leaps and bounds, with all projects in Stage 1 of the Zero Trust
Maturity Curve expected to be adopted by more than half of all companies by 2023.
(At least half will adopt four out of the five main initiatives in Stage 2 as well.) North
American companies are a bit further behind, but building momentum. Connecting
employee directories to cloud apps is an essential step along the Zero Trust Maturity
journey, and 74% of organizations have already done this, or will do so in the next 12
to 18 months.
Which industries lead the way? Not surprisingly, sectors with the mostsensitive information are moving the fastest. Financial services, healthcare(with their strict compliance requirements and accelerated digitization due
to the pandemic), and software companies are making Zero Trust a priority.

Progress in Adopting Zero Trust

+91%

+31%

+9%

Network Context

User Context

Device Context

Percentage of customers
leveraging risk-based
policies increased from
2.2% in October 2020 to4.2% in October 2021.

Percentage of customers
leveraging WebAuthn
increased from 11.8% in
October 2020 to 15.5%
in October 2021.

Percentage of customers
leveraging device trust
increased from 7.7% in
October 2020 to 8.4% in
October 2021.

Businesses at Work

Security at work

47

The Zero Trust security model requires that requests to access applications and data
are resolved by a dynamic, real-time assessment of user, device, and network context.
There are several policy levers to make this a reality for customers. With Okta, identity
can be verified based on the authenticators (factors), devices, and network attributes
historically associated with any given user. Several third-party integrations now provide
opportunities to also verify device posture (Is the device patched? Is it free of malware?)and an array of other attributes relating to user, device, or network behavior.
Okta’s customers have demonstrated that they are eager to begin this journey. We’ve
observed an increase in new customers enrolling users in higher assurance factors(such as WebAuthn), as well as growth in the number of customers restricting accessto known (registered) devices or requiring step-up authentication when a user requests
access from an unfamiliar device.
The most telling statistic is the 91% rise in customers using risk-based authentication.
Customers are increasingly configuring sign-on policies in which the risk of a request
is evaluated based on network reputation and whether there is any measured deviationfrom previous user behavior (such as their device or location). This evaluation promises
to deliver stronger security outcomes without any additional friction or constraints
to legitimate users.
The Zero Trust model demands that user identity be reassessed on a continual basis
post-authentication, either after specified time intervals or based on the risk associatedwith every subsequent user activity. Okta’s risk-based authentication policies canbe tailored such that users exhibiting new or riskier behaviors are subject to step-up
authentication, while those that continue to exhibit the same known attributes canpress on with their work uninterrupted.
For customers using risk-based authentication policies, the most critical building
blocks of a Zero Trust strategy are already in place.

Businesses at Work

Security at work
Enabling customers with the tools
they need to implement a Zero Trust
strategy is a top priority for us.
Seeing such a significant increase in
WebAuthn as a factor and the growing
adoption of risk-based network
policies indicates that it is a priority forour customers as well, and I’m hopefulthat this trend will continue.
David Bradbury
Chief Security Officer, Okta

48

Businesses at WorkAppdevelopment
matures49

A developing story: building awesome apps for customers
We’ve adapted to the pandemic by adopting apps for nearly everything we do. Now
almost every interaction between consumers and brands is happening online, andcompanies are investing heavily to build frictionless, personalized, and seamless digital
experiences for their customers. This trend is only expected to increase, as IDC predicts,“Recognizing that software is likely to be the engine that drives revenue and businessvalue in the coming years, many companies want to develop more software.” *Looking at our most popular developer tools, Atlassian Product Suite and GitHubcontinue to be crowd favorites, but the story goes much deeper. This year, we
see substantial growth in apps that help organizations monitor their systems andrespond quickly, which tells us that developers are focused on the long tail of thedevelopment process.

* IDC, IDC Software Development
Insourcing Is on the Rise, Doc#US48106221, August 2021.

When it comes to SDKs, JavaScript is by far the most popular tool, primarily driven by
the use of React and its open source support.

In our crazy world, developers and operators are looking for reliability
Most Popular Developer Tools
Atlassian Product Suite
GitHub
PagerDuty
Datadog
New Relic

Number of Customers

SplunkJenkins
SentryAtlassian Statuspage
Sumo Logic

1
1
1
1
7
7
7
7
9
8
9
9
8
9
8
8
6
6
6
6
0
0
0
0
01
01
01
01
02
02 202
02
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
01
02
02 202
02
l2
l
l2
l2
l2
r2
t 2 an 2
r2
r2
r2
r2
t2
t2
t 2 an 2
t2
l
n2
n2
n2
r2
t2
n2
Ju
Ju
Ju
Ju
Ju
Ja
Ap
Ju
Ja
J
J
Ap
Ja
Ap
Ap
Oc
Ap
Oc
Oc
Oc
Oc
Ja
Ap
Oc

Note: The Atlassian Product Suite includes Confluence, Jira, Trello, and Bitbucket, which are frequently accessed
together via a subscription to Atlassian Access.

Businesses at WorkAppdevelopment
matures

50

This year’s data suggests that developers are expanding their scope: monitoring andvisibility are becoming just as critical as development itself. Developers are increasingly
looking to facilitate long-term app stability, including creating processes around outages
and monitoring applications to find trouble before it becomes a major problem.
In the quest for “five nines” of reliability, customers are driven to find greater visibility
into their environments, whether they are on-premises, in the cloud, or a hybrid, as
they transform to embrace the cloud. As developers and DevOps engineers lean into
tools that ensure better site reliability, the process and efficiency affects the entire
organization. This list features industry leaders that span the app development lifecycle.
Out of the top 10 most popular developer tools, a full seven deal with app monitoringand incident response. Four of the top 10 are log aggregators: Splunk, Datadog,
New Relic, and Sumo Logic. Two are monitoring systems: Sentry and Atlassian
Statuspage. One, PagerDuty, is an incident management system. As would be
expected in an era of rapidly expanding cloud-based systems and work-from-anywhereproliferation, the tools needed most are those that help organizations monitor theirsystems and respond quickly when things go wrong. Monitoring and error tracking app
Sentry—a fastest-growing app in last year’s report, also up one spot in the developer
tools chart this year—shows the most year-over-year growth with an impressive
68%. Datadog grew 44% year over year, and PagerDuty grew 38% in that time.
Only three of the most popular developer tools are focused on productivity, but these
are clear market leaders: Atlassian for ticket management and GitHub for source
control (the #1 and #2 here), and Jenkins for app deployment. This suggests that
productivity is largely a solved problem amongst key market players in their respective
areas. Yet, as the go-to tools for the functionality they provide, these popular solutions
are still showing strong growth year over year: Atlassian grew 36% since our 2020
report (and 134% since 2018); GitHub clocks in at 41%, having doubled since 2018;
Jenkins reports 47% year-over-year growth; and Sumo Logic sees a respectable 25%.
We would also like to give a shout-out to two developer tools that appear in our fastestgrowing apps. First, Postman is this year’s third fastest-growing app by number ofcustomers. Since 2016, only one other developer tool has reached the top three fastestgrowing apps by number of customers: Atlassian Opsgenie, in 2019. Postman is an API
management tool used to develop, test, and monitor APIs, and it’s often added to API
gateway solutions. Companies seem to be modernizing around an API-first mindset.
Customer data platform (CDP) provider Twilio Segment ranks as our seventh fastestgrowing app by number of unique users, with 325% year-over-year growth. CDPs canprovide insights into behavior patterns, allowing companies to learn more about theircustomers and apps through data. These tools are often used by customers such asretailers looking to drive strong promotions that will lead to user conversions.

Businesses at Work51

SDK tools: developers build with JavaScript and React
Customers Using SDK Tools
77%

JavaScript
Go

19%

Java

14%
12%

C#
Python7%
5%

ASP.NET
Objective C

5%Spring Boot

5%

Powershell

5%

PHP

3%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

Percentage of Customers
Note: Data limited to customers with at least one SDK event between November 1, 2020,
and October 31, 2021.

Appdevelopment
matures

It’s no secret that app use and proliferation continues to increase in the era of exponentially
increased deliveries and subscriptions—Apple reported last June that their App Storeecosystem alone was responsible for $643 billion in billings and sales in 2020, a 34%
increase from the previous year. This meteoric rise in apps shows no sign of slowing
down, a trend we’re also seeing play out in developers’ use of software development
kits (SDKs). If you build it, customers will come... and to build it, you need an SDK.
Looking at the breakdown of the most popular tools, we see one name sprinting
away from the rest of the pack: JavaScript, which boasts usage by a stunning 77%
of customers—a huge jump from already impressive totals of 63% last year and 23%
in 2019. Why the huge increase in adoption? We see that a) Javascript is effectively
becoming the dominant language of the modern internet, and b) customers are
adopting the JavaScript-based library React, a core tool for website creation. Morepeople are using React than any of the other frameworks like Angular JS and Vue
JS. React now has five times more customers using it than frameworks Angular,
Vue, and React-Native combined. (Broken out by itself, React has 53% adoption.)
Go is used by 19% of customers using SDK tools, enough to hold its second-place spot
ahead of Java and C#. The popularity of Go points to the use of identity to secure
servers. Go is leveraged by Terraform by HashiCorp, which is very hot right now with
the DevOps push to Infrastructure as Code (IaC). Note that Terraform by HashiCorp
is called out in our cloud platforms section for its growth of 70% within just the past
six months.

Businesses at Work

52

App’s all,folks!
The world’s post-pandemic future is taking shape. Many workforces will be partlyor wholly remote on an ongoing basis now, driving increased adoption of tools that
promote and secure remote collaboration and keep employees connected and engaged.
For many companies, digital transformation will shift from a project-based initiative
to an ongoing review-and-refine process. Developers will continue to build apps that
support our new remote habits, at work and at home. Innovative, interoperable solutions
will continue driving tech stack diversity, including increased use of multiple cloud
platforms, and the addition of best-of-breed apps that offer the best functionality.
No matter the obstacles in our paths, we will find ways to work efficiently andstay connected.

Okta is the leading independent identity provider. The Okta Identity Cloud enables organizations
to securely connect the right people to the right technologies at the right time. With more than
7,000 pre-built integrations to applications and infrastructure providers, Okta provides simple
and secure access to people and organizations everywhere, giving them the confidence to reach
their full potential. More than 14,000 organizations, including JetBlue, Nordstrom, Siemens, Slack,Takeda, Teach for America, and Twilio, trust Okta to help protect the identities of their workforces
and customers.

2022

Businessesat Work