Data and security tools overtaking collaboration tools as fasted growing enterprise apps

Okta user data suggests companies are increasingly turning to data and security tools 

Cloud identity access and management platform Okta has published its latest Businesses @ Work report, offering fresh insights into the new applications taking over the workforce.

As Okta is used by thousands of companies to securely integrate their application portfolios, the company’s user data provides a useful indication of application trends.

Whereas previous reports highlighted collaboration tools such as Slack and Zoom as the fasted growing apps, this year’s research suggests we are entering a new period dominated by data and security tools.

According to Okta’s research, based on the usage of its 7,400 customers, six out of the ten fastest-growing apps and integrations last year were data or security-focused.

On the data front, data warehousing provider Snowflake had the biggest uptick in adoption, enjoying 273 percent growth. Meanwhile, big data processor Splunk entered the top ten for the first time in fourth place. Looker, the data discovery tool acquired by Google Cloud, rose to sixth.

The security tools joining this year’s top ten include Atlassian Opsgenie, an incident management tool acquired by Atlassian in 2018, which sits in second place. KnowBe4, the fastest growing app in 2018, showed a respectable 89 percent growth but dropped to fifth place. Lastly, Jamf Pro, the fastest-growing app in 2017, was last year’s seventh fasted growing app.

“As more businesses build and protect digital experiences for their workforces and customers, we’ve […] seen a gravitation toward technologies that enable choice and flexibility, with a healthy dose of data usability and security,” said Todd Mckinnon, CEO & Co-Founder of Okta. “We saw a shakeup of new apps dominating the workforce, with Snowflake, Atlassian Opsgenie, and Splunk all making the list of fastest-growing apps for the first time.”

The modern security stack

Okta also analysed the past four years of data to paint a picture of what it calls “the modern security stack”.

Okta splits today’s most popular security tools into four layers. In the “people” layer, Okta groups email security and password management, ID proofing, privileged access management (PAM), identity governance and administration (IGA), cloud access security brokers (CASB), as well as on-site visitor management tools.

In the devices layer, Okta includes security analytics, endpoint management and security, and certificate management.  Secure web gateway tools, VPNs, firewalls and proxies make up the network layer, while the infrastructure layer comprises content delivery network providers, server access, and infrastructure monitoring tools.

According to Okta, the people layer is dominating the security stack, with more than 42 percent of companies now deploying a tool in the layer, an increase from only 24 percent three years ago. Around 33 percent of customers currently deploy a tool in the network and devices layers, and 22 percent in the infrastructure layer.

“A CISO’s top concern is often better-securing individual credentials, whether personal credentials (via a password manager) or privileged credentials (via a privileged access management tool),” reads the report. “Our data confirms this. When we double-click into the people layer, the fastest growth is coming from password managers, at 84 percent year-over-year growth,” it adds.

Other findings include a rise in the average number of apps being used by enterprises. While the average now stands at 88, up from 83 apps a year ago, 10 percent of Okta’s customers now use 200 apps or more.