INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Okta, the cloud identity management company, announced today it has purchased a startup called ScaleFT to bring the Zero Trust concept to
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.While Zero Trust isn&t exactly new to a cloud identity management company like Okta, acquiring ScaleFT
gives them a solid cloud-based Zero Trust foundation on which to continue to develop the concept internally.&To help our customers increase
security while also meeting the demands of the modern workforce, we&re acquiring ScaleFT to further our contextual access management vision
— and ensure the right people get access to the right resources for the shortest amount of time,& Okta co-founder and COO Frederic Kerrest
said in a statement.Zero Trust is a security framework that acknowledges work no longer happens behind the friendly confines of a firewall
In the old days before mobile and cloud, you could be pretty certain that anyone on your corporate network had the authority to be there,
but as we have moved into a mobile world, it no longer a simple matter to defend a perimeter when there is effectively no such thing
Zero Trust means what it says: you can&t trust anyone on your systems and have to provide an appropriate security posture.The idea was
pioneered by Google &BeyondCorp& principals and the founders of ScaleFT are adherents to this idea
According to Okta, &ScaleFT developed a cloud-native Zero Trust access management solution that makes it easier to secure access to company
resources without the need for a traditional VPN.&Okta wants to incorporate the ScaleFT team and, well, scale their solution for large
enterprise customers interested in developing this concept, according to a company blog post by Kerrest.&Together, we&ll work to bring Zero
Trust to the enterprise by providing organizations with a framework to protect sensitive data, without compromising on experience
Okta and ScaleFT will deliver next-generation continuous authentication capabilities to secure server access — from cloud to ground,&
Kerrest wrote in the blog post.ScaleFT CEO and co-founder Jason Luce will manage the transition between the two companies, while CTO and
co-founder Paul Querna will lead strategy and execution of Okta Zero Trust architecture
CSO Marc Rogers will take on the role of Okta Executive Director, Cybersecurity Strategy.The acquisition allows the Okta to move beyond
purely managing identity into broader cyber security, at least conceptually
Certainly Roger new role suggests the company could have other ideas to expand further into general cyber security beyond Zero Trust.ScaleFT
was founded in 2015 and has raised $2.8 million over two seed rounds, according to Crunchbase data.
