How to Migrate to Okta from Oracle Access Manager

Migrating from Oracle Access Manager to Okta is a common cyber security measure for larger businesses and enterprises. At Sennovate, we migrate clients every day. While a complex process, our experience helps alleviate concern about data-loss risks and business process interruptions. Here’s a guide.

What is Oracle Access Manager?

Oracle Access Manager is part of Oracle Identity Management Suite, a data security solution that helps the right employees access the right information — while protecting that data from hackers and malicious threats. Per Oracle:

“Oracle Identity Management enables organizations to effectively manage the end-to-end lifecycle of user identities across all enterprise resources, both within and beyond the firewall and into the cloud. The Oracle Identity Management platform delivers scalable solutions for identity governance, access management and directory services. This modern platform helps organizations strengthen security, simplify compliance and capture business opportunities around mobile and social access.”

What is Okta?

Similarly, Okta is an online security solution that allows the right people to access the right information and accounts, while making it very difficult for hackers and criminals to access accounts. With Okta, a salesforce can securely access a cloud-driven mobile database with testing or product information, while also accessing their corporate email worldwide. How is this different than something like Gmail? With Okta, email access can be much more secure, via customizable authentication methods like multi-factor authentication, biometrics, and location sensing. Plus, Okta makes it possible to provide remote and mobile access to proprietary company database information — which consumer-facing mail and cloud document apps simply don’t offer.

What are Okta and Oracle Identity Management used for?

Both Okta and Oracle Identity Management enable businesses and enterprises to manage user identities, and related access to secure data. The toolset can also monitor and audit users and their access privileges. So, whether it’s email access, or database access, both Okta and Oracle Identity Management are intended to allow the right employees to access the right information from their devices.

Why do companies migrate to Okta from Oracle Identity Management?

Generally, businesses migrate to Okta from Oracle Identity Management because it’s more difficult to update legacy applications and databases, than to simply upgrade to newer more flexible security solutions like Okta. The flow looks something like this:

An enterprise legacy security solution requires complex updating
The enterprise has concerns about the effectiveness of their legacy security solution
The enterprise has concerns about compliance issues related to outdated security
The enterprise determines whether it’s more effective to update the legacy security solution, or migrate to a modern flexible solution
The enterprise decides to migrate to Okta from Oracle Identity Management

Per Okta, severe legacy problems that don’t have easy fixes include:

Proprietary vendor software is no longer supported
Systems that were built a long time ago which no current employees know how to maintain/access
Systems that are built in older programming languages which would require rewrites to modify

There are other reasons companies migrate to Okta, including:

Current identity management solution fails to support required features
Current identity management solution requires too much maintenance

Do Okta and Oracle Identity Management both offer Multi Factor Authentication (MFA)?

Yes, Okta and Oracle both offer multi-factor authentication (MFA). MFA offers increased security over traditional Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). Okta offers additional security measures to gain access. Simply put, requiring two passwords would be more secure than just one password. However, requiring one password and one text confirmation would be even more secure. Extrapolating from there, requiring a password, a text confirmation, an approved IP address, and a biometric signature would be even more secure.

Reasons companies and enterprises prefer Okta:

Okta is scalable. Okta MFA solutions are flexible enough for startups, and powerful enough for global enterprises. Plus, with adaptive pricing models, Okta is affordable for companies throughout their growth curve.

Okta solutions include Advanced Server Access for executives and administrators. Beyond offering secure access for remote workforces, Okta also offers Advanced Server Access (similar to privileged access management (PAM) solutions), which make it easy to add/remove employees, while offering executives insight into the overall security of their framework and future risk assessment.

Okta is Cloud and Oracle is On-premise. Okta has been delivered fully on cloud as SaaS. Also it is a very matured cloud based SSO Product. On the other hand, Oracle is very popular in on-premise or hosted cloud solutions. Oracle also launched IDCS (Identity Cloud Services) couple of years ago but yet to catch traction in the market.

Do Okta and Oracle Identity Management both offer biometric authentication?

Yes, Okta offers customizable biometric multi-factor authentication, typically fingerprints and fingerprint scanners. Oracle offers biometric authentication via Identix Biometric Authentication Adapter services.

Okta is compatible with any SAML/OIDC authorized provider, so other biometric authentication is also compatible. In our experience, we have only incorporated fingerprint biometrics with Okta, and it works easily and predictably.

How to Migrate to Okta from Oracle Identity Management

Migrating to Okta from Oracle Identity Management is a complex process with the focus of ensuring zero data loss. Okta has created a guide, and here are the general steps:

Assess your existing user repository
Understand delegated authentication
Ensure a seamless credential store migration
Secure customer PII
Choose the appropriate migration method: Bulk import, Just-in-time, Existing directories
Prepare your user migration: Avoid rate limit impacts, Test performance, Plan for process impacts

To view Okta’s migration guide, click here.

What is Okta pricing compared to Oracle IAM?

Okta costs significantly less than Oracle Identity Management. Okta’s adaptive pricing model offers a scalable cost intended to grow with your company and workforce. Their adaptive pricing is both modular and scalable. It allows companies to choose only what they need to begin, and scale by user. Then, businesses can add services, as they grow.

Scale by Workforce. With a per user cost of $2-15/month, Okta costs small companies less, and automatically scales as they grow.

Scale by Product. With modular service add-on’s, Okta makes it easy to get started with MFA and identity management, then allows companies to add additional services when needed.

Okta costs most of our companies about $1500/month, although it can range widely. Whereas Oracle Identity Management costs our clients upwards of $5,000/month. The actual choice is influenced based on many factors such as volume, security and compliance requirements etc.

For example, we implemented Okta for a Bay Area biotech startup. They pay Okta’s per user fees ($6/user), plus an annual MFA cost ($8000), plus API Access Management ($8000). In total it’s about $16,500/year, or $1375/month. On an enterprise scale, we implemented Okta for an enterprise IT department, and their Okta costs are about $6,000/month.

Is Okta more secure than Oracle Identity Management?

In our experience, we consider Okta and Oracle Identity Management similar in security quality. However, Okta is easier to implement, update, and maintain. For these reasons, over time, Okta may offer a more up-to-date security experience and therefore fewer compliance concerns.

If Oracle is already in place, and its features properly match your enterprise needs, then Oracle Identity Management is an effective solution. However, if maintenance and compliance are issues, we lean towards recommending Okta.

In a comparison by IT Central Station, Okta Workforce Identity may show an advantage over Oracle Identity Management:

“Okta Workforce Identity is ranked 1st in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) with 10 reviews while Oracle Identity Governance is ranked 6th in Identity Management (IM) with 5 reviews. Okta Workforce Identity is rated 8.6, while Oracle Identity Governance is rated 7.2. The top reviewer of Okta Workforce Identity writes “Stable sign-on with provisioning and has the ability to enable and disable features”. On the other hand, the top reviewer of Oracle Identity Governance writes “It has a quick response time but because of the bugs we have already had some major incidents and complete unavailability”. Okta Workforce Identity is most compared with Microsoft Azure Active Directory Premium, OneLogin Workforce Identity and Auth0, whereas Oracle Identity Governance is most compared with SailPoint IdentityIQ, One Identity Manager and Symantec Identity Governance and Administration.”

When should I migrate to Okta?

As soon as possible, if your enterprise or business is concerned about security threats or compliance issues. If a legacy security system is out of date, and exposed to hackers or malicious threats, the risks of a breach increase every day. If compliance is a concern, then showing your business’s intent to maintain compliance should proceed as soon as possible. Showing that your business is doing its due diligence to maintain compliance is essential.

Do I need a Managed Security Service Provider near me?

Maybe. The most important factor is experience and effective workflow, whether in-person, on-site, virtual, or off-site. That said, we think working with a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) near you is an advantage. This will allow your MSSP to better communicate with existing IT teams, and better understand your current information architecture. A non-local MSSP becomes a good option if they follow security best practices, and have an established virtual workflow. Why? Location is less significant when virtual workforce tools are effectively adopted by consultant and client, whether a small business or global enterprise. Plus, on-site MSSPs can become costly. Bottomline, look for a MSSP who offers an excellent communication process, clear workflow, and custom security solution for your business.

Have questions migrating to Okta?
Email [email protected] or call (925) 918-6618

The 5-Minute Identity and Access Management Tutorial

Privileged Access Management Requirements in 2020

The Insider’s Guide to Okta Adaptive MFA Pricing

The Guide to Modern Types of Multi-Factor Authentication

How to Get an Accurate Okta Quote

About Sennovate

Sennovate delivers custom identity and access management solutions to businesses around the world. With global partners and a library of 1000+ integrations, we implement world-class cybersecurity solutions that save your company time and money. We offer a seamless experience with integration across all cloud applications, and a single price for product, implementation, and support. Have questions? The consultation is always free. Email [email protected] or call us at: (925) 918-6618