Area Vice President - Strategic Sales

Now available: On-demand SaaS integrations from Okta. Request and deploy custom Okta Integration Network app connectors in as little as 48 hours - at no extra cost 10 September 2026 Topics. Okta Integration Network, Identity Governance & Administration Table of contents. What are Okta on-demand SaaS integrations? Imagine that your IT and security teams are in the middle of a major initiative to modernize your identity stack. You've deployed Okta Identity Governance to clean up access sprawl, rolled out Okta Privileged Access to enforce zero standing privileges, and set up continuous threat protection. The architecture is clean, the policies are tight, and your security posture has never been stronger. Then your marketing team signs a contract for a fast-growing analytics tool. HR purchases a niche onboarding app to streamline global hires. And engineering adopts a cutting-edge developer platform to accelerate your AI projects. They all need their teams onboarded immediately. You open the Okta Integration Network (OIN) catalog, search for these tools, and hit a wall: because these emerging apps are new, out-of-the-box connectors don't exist yet. Suddenly, you're in the IT compromise zone. Do you delay strategic, revenue-generating business initiatives for weeks while waiting for custom integrations to be built? Or do you let teams roll out these apps unintegrated, creating security blind spots where single sign-on (SSO) isn't enforced, provisioning is manual, and privileged access or universal logout policies can't reach? It's not a great choice, which is why Okta has rethought how integrations are built. As part of Okta's commitment to delivering a unified identity security fabric, Okta Inc. is launching on-demand integrations, a platform benefit available to all customers at no additional cost. Now, you can request and deploy OIN app connections in as little as 48 hours. Fast-tracked timeline: How do Okta on-demand integrations work? Traditionally, creating a custom connector from scratch required acquiring dedicated vendor test tenants upfront, manually building protocol logic, and aligning with release schedules - steps that take time while vendor partnerships are established. On-demand integrations complement its 8,000+ pre-built connections in the OIN by introducing a fast-track approach for newer or progressive tools: * Delivered in as little as 48 hours: Go from request to deployment in as little as two days instead of months, reducing roadmap delays so your business can adopt new software without waiting. * Included platform benefit at no additional cost: Extend Okta's security safety net across long-tail and emerging applications without custom developer overhead, third-party connector fees, or added budget. * Rapid sandbox verification: Integrations deploy directly to your Okta preview environment, allowing your team to validate functionality using your own application instances without waiting on global release queues. Okta believes your identity platform should adapt to your technology choices, not the other way around. As an independent, neutral partner, Okta Inc. never force you into a walled-garden ecosystem. Whether an app is a long-standing partner integration or a brand-new tool requested on demand, its goal is to help you secure it as fast as your business moves. The three-step joint verification process for custom connectors. To ensure these integrations meet strict enterprise security standards before hitting production, Okta Inc. built a collaborative three-step verification model: * Okta pre-validation: Okta builds the connector and validates it against internal mock servers that simulate real-world API behavior and catch flow errors before the integration ever reaches your environment. * Customer sandbox testing: The integration is delivered to your preview org, where your admin team accepts a log monitoring consent, adds the app, and validates provisioning, authentication, and policy performance using your live application instances. * Seamless production move: Once your team verifies integration health and gives the green light, Okta promotes the connector to your production org without requiring rebuilds or retesting. Comprehensive coverage: Which security features are supported by on-demand integrations? On-demand integrations can help you extend protection across your app ecosystem, covering: * SSO and lifecycle management: Enforce centralized authentication and automated user provisioning/deprovisioning. * Entitlement management: Bring niche SaaS tools under automated access requests, certification campaigns, and continuous governance policies. * Privileged access management and universal logout: Extend just-in-time access controls and real-time session revocation across sensitive administrative tools. * Identity security posture management: Eliminate shadow IT by discovering unmanaged app usage and bringing rogue tools under central policy control. Securing every app, from long-tail tools to enterprise staples. On-demand integrations build upon what is already the industry's deepest integration ecosystem. The Okta Integration Network features more than 8,000 pre-built integrations, giving you out-of-the-box coverage for a vast catalog of software on the market today. For your most widely used critical SaaS applications like Salesforce, Workday, and Microsoft Office 365, Okta Inc. continue to deepen protection through its collection of Secure Identity Integrations, delivering advanced security features such as fine-grained entitlement management and automated posture checks. By pairing its OIN catalog and Secure Identity Integrations with AI-powered on-demand integrations, Okta helps make sure that no app is left behind. Whether it's a mission-critical SaaS app or a niche tool adopted yesterday, its goal is for your entire software stack to remain unified under a single trusted identity security fabric. How to request a custom Okta SaaS integration. Ready to bring your newest workforce apps under Okta's safety net? Starting in November 2026, commercial Okta customers can request on-demand integrations directly through the Okta Support portal: * Verify the target app's public OpenAPI Specification. On-demand integrations are available only for new SaaS app integrations for which an OpenAPI Specification is publicly available or that the customer shares with Okta. * Log in to the Okta Support Center. * Submit a new support case detailing the target SaaS application and required integration types. * Receive the generated connector in your Okta preview environment in as little as 48 hours for validation. These materials are intended for general informational purposes only and are not intended to be legal, privacy, security, compliance, or business advice. (C) 2026 Okta, Inc. and/or its affiliates.

New Okta innovations close governance blind spots and extend Zero Standing Privilege to secure the agentic enterprise. Okta announced a series of new innovations across Okta Identity Governance (OIG) and Okta Privileged Access (OPA), along with expanded identity threat detection and response capabilities from Permiso Security. Now CIOs, CISOs, and AI leaders can automate compliance, reduce standing privileges, and enable real-time control of identities across their organization - accelerating AI adoption without compromising security. Static permissions and traditional credential vaults leave critical gaps that attackers routinely exploit via humans, service accounts, and autonomous workflows. These gaps widen as approvals get rubber-stamped and reviews fall behind. Real-time, automated access decisions can give security teams continuous control, while letting the broader business implement AI quickly and securely. "Nobody wants to slow AI down, but you can't simply hand out access and hope for the best," said Ely Kahn, Chief Product Officer, Okta. "Enterprises need a one-stop shop to govern, secure, and monitor every identity: humans, AI agents, and non-human workloads alike. By bringing governance, privileged access management, and threat detection together on a single, independent platform, we're giving security leaders dynamic, real-time control and turning zero standing privilege from a theoretical goal into an everyday operational reality." Governing Identity at Enterprise Scale As cloud adoption accelerates, managing access has become a major bottleneck and security risk. Manual reviews, complex permission overlaps, and approval backlogs force organizations into an unsustainable trade-off between business agility and compliance. A unified approach changes the equation: a study by Forrester Consulting found that Okta's unified platform enables customers to onboard new apps 75% faster and achieve an overall ROI of 216%, demonstrating that strong governance helps drive business velocity rather than slowing it down. New innovations coming soon in Okta Identity Governance deliver automated, context-driven control to reduce operational burdens: * Advanced Entitlement Management for AWS: Centralize fine-grained permission tracking across developers, workloads, and AI agents, letting engineering teams ship code faster while maintaining separation of duties. * Intelligent Request Recommendations: Let employees request access directly within standard workflows such as Slack, ServiceNow, or the Okta dashboard, reducing days-long ticket queues and blind rubberstamping. * Automated Drift Detection & Remediation: Quickly identify unapproved access changes and revoke rogue permissions in real time, shifting from intermittent compliance audits to continuous containment. To extend governance across the full ecosystem, Okta is also introducing 48-Hour Integrations. Building on Okta's catalog of more than 8,000 pre-built integrations, Okta now leverages AI to deliver new integrations for governance, privileged access, and beyond in as little as 48 hours (down from a manual process that took two to three months), enabling teams to rapidly unify and govern access for people, machines, and AI agents in one place. "We've been able to automate most of our access campaign work with Okta Identity Governance. It now takes one of us a day of work instead of two of us spending a full month of our time," said Ashley Taylor, IT Security Analyst at Instructure. Reducing Risk with Zero Standing Privilege Governance ensures organizations know exactly who should have access, but when that access touches an enterprise's critical infrastructure - from cloud databases to network hardware - standing privilege becomes a liability. Today, credential abuse accounts for 39% of all breaches, meaning attackers aren't breaking in; they're logging in. Anchored in the same identity fabric that governs access decisions, Okta Privileged Access closes that gap by verifying access does not outlive its purpose. New features expand and enforce just-in-time access across humans, workloads, and AI agents: * Unified Database Security: Centralizes policy enforcement across servers, SaaS accounts, and Active Directory, reducing credential sprawl and automatically vaulting and rotating database secrets to protect sensitive data against breaches. * Dynamic Kubernetes Protection: Teams running autoscaling apps no longer need to hardcode service account tokens or manually rotate secrets when a pod spins up, reducing long-lived credentials as businesses scale. * Network Device Coverage: Extends coverage to historically isolated assets like routers, firewalls, and switches, closing forgotten backdoors and audit nightmares. * Machine-Speed Workload Protection: Authorizes automated identities, CI/CD pipelines, and AI agents at machine speed to retrieve vaulted credentials securely without slowing down automation, verifying each action is traced back to the accountable human. Inside the Innovations: Advancing Identity Threat Detection Beyond governing and securing access, organizations also need to detect and respond to identity risk as it emerges. Following Okta's recent acquisition of Permiso Security, Okta is broadening and deepening its existing identity threat detection and response capabilities. Permiso brings identity risk signals, behavioral analytics, and threat-informed detections across multiple identity providers, cloud environments, and SaaS applications. Together, Okta and Permiso will help organizations discover, monitor, and respond to identity threats across human, non-human, and AI identities. David Marshall is the founder of VMblog.com, one of the industry's longest-running independent publications covering modern data center technologies. What began as a focus on virtualization and cloud computing has expanded to cover the full spectrum of enterprise IT, including AI, security, and DevOps, making VMblog a trusted destination for vendor news, technology analysis, and industry commentary.Beyond publishing, David has spent his career at the intersection of technology and business, inventing, marketing, and launching a number of successful software companies and products, and building a reputation as a skilled marketing executive in the enterprise IT space.David is also a published author, having written two well-regarded books on virtualization and served as technical editor for two "For Dummies" titles covering virtualization and cloud computing. He co-founded CloudCow.com, a publication focused on cloud computing, and has been named a VMware vExpert every year since 2009, one of the longest continuous honoree streaks in the program's history.Connect with David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmarshall/

Okta appoints Sunil Kedaraji as APJ partner Vice President. Wed, 9th Sep 2026 (Today) Okta has appointed Sunil Kedaraji as Vice President, Channels and Strategic Alliances for Asia Pacific and Japan, overseeing the company's partner business across the region. Based in Singapore, Kedaraji will work with sales, alliances, channel and go-to-market teams across APJ. His remit includes deepening strategic partnerships, strengthening partner capability and expanding the scale of regional partner operations. The appointment comes as identity management and cybersecurity providers seek closer ties with resellers, integrators and alliance partners in a market shaped by AI adoption and evolving security demands. Partners are central to Okta's approach in APJ as organisations manage new forms of digital identity and access. Kedaraji brings more than 24 years of experience in the technology sector, including senior partner and channel leadership roles focused on cybersecurity and identity. Before joining Okta, he held leadership positions at Saviynt, SailPoint, Proofpoint and Quest Software. Those roles gave him experience at companies that sell identity, access and security software through indirect channels and strategic partner networks. Dan Mountstephen, Senior Vice President and General Manager, APJ, Okta, said partnerships are central to the company's regional growth strategy. "Partners are fundamental to how we grow across APJ and help customers address increasingly complex security and technology environments," said Mountstephen. "Sunil brings deep experience building and scaling partner ecosystems across the region, along with a strong understanding of identity and cybersecurity. His leadership will help us deepen our strategic partnerships, expand our reach and create more opportunities for Okta and our partners to deliver for customers." Regional focus Okta's decision to appoint a senior regional partner executive reflects the importance of Asia Pacific and Japan for software suppliers building indirect sales routes. The region includes markets with differing levels of cloud adoption, cybersecurity maturity and channel structure, often requiring local partner relationships rather than a single regional model. In identity and access management, vendors are also responding to a broader shift in customer requirements. The rise of AI systems and AI agents has added new layers of complexity around who or what is granted access to systems, data and applications, increasing pressure on companies to manage identities beyond employees and customers. That shift also has commercial implications for software groups that depend on implementation and advisory partners. Systems integrators, service providers and specialist security consultancies are often the first point of contact for companies assessing identity controls, access policies and governance models linked to AI projects. Kedaraji joins as organisations across APJ navigate a rapidly changing identity landscape. AI and AI agents are creating new identities, connections and access requirements across enterprises, while cyber threats continue to evolve. Partner strategy Okta's regional partner strategy is likely to focus on helping customers put identity controls in place as they adopt AI tools. For vendors in this segment, that means relying on partners not only for sales reach but also for implementation, technical advice and ongoing account development. Kedaraji described the commercial opportunity for Okta and its partners in APJ in direct terms. "There is a significant opportunity for Okta and our partners across APJ. Customers are moving quickly with AI, but they also need to understand how to secure it and manage the new identities and access it creates," said Kedaraji. "Partners have an important role to play in helping customers navigate that change. My focus will be on working closely with our teams and partners to strengthen the ecosystem across APJ, build greater capability and create more opportunities for us to grow together." The hire also underlines how software companies are investing in channel leadership as competition intensifies in identity security. Executives with experience across multiple vendors can bring established partner relationships and an understanding of how regional alliances differ across markets such as Australia, Singapore, Japan and India. For Okta, the move places an experienced channel executive in charge of a region where customers are reassessing identity controls as AI projects expand. Kedaraji's previous roles at Saviynt, SailPoint, Proofpoint and Quest Software give him experience across adjacent areas of the security and identity market.