Since March of 2020, organizations around the world have turned to technology to stay afloat during delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies rushed to support remote working, allowing new online experiences to stay connected with employees and transact with customers.
Innovative technology solutions, once considered only by “earlier adopters,” have become safety tools for companies of every size and industry.
Every year, through its report on Business at Work, Okta uses a set of anonymous data to determine the technologies its customers use to adapt to this changing environment. wherereport last year explored the apps and tools deployed to carry organizations in this massive mess, Businesses at Work 2022: Familiar Players in the Changing Landscape offer a window into how they ensure online experiences in the years to come.
Now in its 8th year, we mine Okta again network of 14,000 global customers and more than 7,000 integrations using cloud, mobile, and web apps, and IT infrastructure providers — to better understand the apps and services that drive work in 2021.
Top apps of the year include a combination of productivity suites, security solutions, and scheduling software. At APAC, we’ve observed an increase in productivity suites like Google Workspace, Zoom, and Slack — a power trio that continues to gain a larger share of customers.
Companies are turning to innovative solutions
As organizations develop digital experiences for workers and customers during the pandemic, we have observed gravitation toward collaboration technologies that enable choice and flexibility. In terms of “number of customers” for APAC, Google Workspace, Zoom, and Slack grew 68%, 40%, and 37%YoY, respectively.
APAC organizations are making investments in remote access protection, as seen by the growth of Palo Alto Networks ’GlobalProtect network security client. But it can also be noticed by supporting applications like Mimecast cloud-based business software email filtering tool ServiceNow.
The rise of multi-cloud platforms
The march toward cloud services continues unabated, with organizations choosing to deploy apps using multiple cloud platforms. Worldwide, AWS remains the favorite cloud platform, showing 32% YoY growth last year and contributing to an overall increase of 152% since 2018. Meanwhile, Google Cloud Platform boasts a 40% increase since 2020 — a whopping 365% from where it ranked in 2018.
Ongoing investment in security
Companies continue to invest in security -related applications, of which Netskope (a network security tool) is now the fastest growing app in the world, according to “number of unique users”, and Workspace ONE of VMware (an endpoint management tool) remains high on the list.
In addition, businesses are increasingly moving to higher security and adaptive authentication methods, such as Okta Verify and WebAuthn, to secure access to applications. Worldwide, SMS as a security factor has dropped from 53% three years ago to 47% today, while security questions have dropped 18% three years ago to 13% today.
Fastest growing apps by unique users
Choice and flexibility are more than honesty
This year’s report shows that organizations around the world are leaning heavily in two areas: choice at collaboration.
Companies continue to rely heavily on productivity suites but are also increasingly choosing the best type of functionality.
For example, Microsoft 365 remains the most popular app among Workforce customers. That said, 33% of Microsoft 365 users have deployed four or more best-breed apps, up from 20% four years ago. This stat highlights the growing importance of flexibility and functionality as employees work remotely. About 38% of Microsoft 365 customers also deploy Google Workspace, the third most popular app this year by “number of customers.” Another 43% use AWS, the second most popular app.
A growing number of organizations are expanding the number of vendors they work with, making choices based on functionality, user experience, and performance.
For example, for Okta customers deploying Microsoft 365,
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45% also deployed Zoom
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33% also deployed Slack
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38% are also deploying Google Workspace-up from 36% in 2020
Interested in digging deeper? You can read the full findings in the report here.
And don’t miss out on the findings from past years! Sort it all out here:
Businesses @ Jobs 2021
Businesses @ Jobs 2020
Businesses @ Jobs 2019
Businesses @ Jobs 2018
Businesses @ Jobs 2017
Businesses @ Jobs 2016
Businesses @ Jobs 2015
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