Dell and Faction have announced new multi-cloud storage and data protection solutions for enterprises looking to monitor their critical data from a centralised location.

«Protecting against ransomware and other cyber attacks is quickly rising in importance for both IT and business executives,” said Joe CaraDonna, CTO of public cloud and APEX offerings at Dell Technologies.

“With the average cost of an attack being $13m, it’s easy to see why this is so concerning. As IT deployments become more complex, with on-prem deployments combined with applications running in multiple public clouds, it is hard to build a world class centralized solution to protect critical data from the modern threat of sophisticated cyberattacks… until today.”

Dell’s Cloud PowerProtect for Multi-cloud is a fully managed service that allows users to safeguard their data in multiple clouds from a single location. Building on this solution, Dell has announced a new security capability called Dell EMC PowerProtect Cyber Recovery. 

Enhanced PowerProtect for Multi-cloud will enable customers to physically and logically isolate their critical data in an air-gapped cloud Cyber Recovery vault in a Faction-powered data center. Data immutability and CyberSense intelligent analytics are also included in the service to ensure enterprise-grade security. In the event of a cyber attack, users can easily move data from the vault to their data center choice, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or Oracle Cloud. 

What’s more, using Superna Eyeglass DR Manager with PowerScale for Multi-cloud, customers can mirror data from their data centers to Faction’s cloud-adjacent center. Users can also choose to recover and save applications in Faction’s data center or any other public cloud listed under Dell’s offerings. 

Superna Eyeglass DR Manager’s other interesting capabilities include one-button failover, flexible SyncIQ scheduling, continuous readiness monitoring, disaster recovery (DR) testing, data loss exposure analysis, and reporting.

According to IT analyst research and validation agency Enterprise Strategy Group, PowerScale for Multi-cloud lowers storage costs by up to 89%. The solution can also reach up to 2Tbps multi-cloud throughput via multiprotocol data access on PowerScale for network file system (NFS), server message block (SMB), Hadoop distributed file system (HDFS), and Amazon’s simple storage service (S3).

“The future of IT is hybrid – a world that balances the right public cloud services with the right on-premises infrastructure to provide the performance, scale, functionality and control required of modern applications and development paradigms. As customers consider this hybrid model, it is important to take a data-first approach,” added CaraDonna.

Intel has announced it is working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to help develop the ‘holy grail’ of encryption.

Intel and DARPA, a research and development US government agency, will work together to develop an accelerator for fully homomorphic encryption (FHE).

FHE is essentially encryption that allows users to perform calculations on encrypted data without decrypting it first, reducing the risk of the information being stolen when in a vulnerable state.

Intel will perform in DARPA’s Data Protection in Virtual Environments (DPRIVE) programme which aims to develop FHE. The organisation will work alongside Microsoft who will lead the commercial adoption of the technology once it has been tested in its cloud offerings, including Microsoft Azure and the JEDI cloud, with the US government.

Rosario Cammarota, principal engineer at Intel Labs and the principal investigator as part of the DARPA DPRIVE programme said: “Fully homomorphic encryption remains the holy grail in the quest to keep data secure while in use. 

“Despite strong advances in trusted execution environments and other confidential computing technologies to protect data while at rest and in transit, data is unencrypted during computation, opening the possibility of potential attacks at this stage. This frequently inhibits our ability to fully share and extract the maximum value out of data.”

According to Intel, many businesses rely on a variety of data encryption methods to protect their information while it is in transit, in use and at rest. These techniques mean that data must be decrypted for processing and during this state it can be vulnerable for misuse.

With FHE, it aims to allow users to compute on always-encrypted data, or cryptograms, which means the data doesn’t need to be decrypted and reduces the risk of potential threats. This will help organisations to use large datasets in techniques like machine learning while protecting the data.

Intel isn’t the only company looking at this technology, as last year IBM released a toolkit to allow macOS and iOS developers to utilise FHE while building apps. FHE was first discovered over a decade ago by IBM researcher Craig Gentry.

One of the starkest consequences of the pandemic is the fragmentation of workforces. Mass working from home was at first expected to be short-term, but now looks set to become permanent as companies look to radically alter how they organise and manage their employees.

Businesses have used collaboration tools for decades, allowing individuals and teams to work efficiently together. COVID-19 made these tools vital and a hub around which workers could congregate. However, the speed at which some businesses rolled out these tools to remote workers was often hurried anot strategically planned. Now that enterprises have had time to assess what extended home working means to them and what tools they really need to make it work, we may see the emergence of a new age of collaboration tools.

It’s no surprise that the fastest-growing apps during the pandemic have been workspace management and collaboration tools. According to Okta’s Business at Work report, Miro, an app offering whiteboard functionality for teams, experienced 301% growth; measured by unique users, it grew 449% in just a year. 

Deployment of project management app Smartsheet has grown 170% over the past three years. Slack has cemented itself as the leading messaging tool with 190% growth. And deployments of Zoom grew over 45% between March and October 2020, while Webex grew 15% and RingCentral grew 18% during this same period.

Martin Langan, chairman and innovation director at legalmatters, tells Cloud Pro that his company has been using the cloud-based NetDocuments service to help its 20-strong workforce manage their document loads. “The implementation of NetDocuments has played a big part in enabling the firm to continue ‘business as usual’ operations despite employees being unable to work from its office,” he says. “At present, legalmatters is only scratching the surface of what its employees can do with NetDocuments, and the firm expects further benefits to be realised once COVID-19 ‘lockdown’ measures are eased.”

Tools, then, need to be chosen and deployed carefully to ensure they are fit for purpose, but also, that their end users are comfortable with their features. Legacy systems also need to be taken into consideration – often, several tools will be used together, which can provide integration and security challenges.

With this in mind, unifying collaboration tools will become the Holy Grail of many businesses post-COVID-19 to avoid efficiency declines and ongoing security issues. Zoom’s new ability to integrate with Google Calendar and Microsoft’s Together Mode are examples of how this might look, as providers take the opportunity to make their products more attractive in an increasingly remote-focused business world.

New Tools

Carl Harris, group director at BCS (The Chartered Institute for IT) says there has been a shift over the past 12 months in how collaboration tools are used: “Certainly, at the start of the pandemic, the single biggest change in our use of collaboration tools was not which tools we are using, but how we would use the ones at our disposal differently.”

He adds: “Take Microsoft Teams as an example. Prior to lockdown Teams was a value-add collaboration tool, enabling us to reach employees via a simple video call more easily on those irregular occasions when somebody may be working from home. Now it is an integral part of our everyday working. All daily employee interaction is conducted through the tool, and the use of the tool’s features have expanded from just simple video calling to an extensive use of all it has to offer.”

Jörn Rabach, director at architecture practice Hutchinson & Partners, tells Cloud Pro his organisation has found significant benefits in melding a specialist remote working and collaboration tool into its existing systems.

“We have recently adopted Inevidesk, a virtual desktop solution which has been developed specifically for the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) sector,” he says. “Most importantly, this solution integrated seamlessly into our existing set-up, allowing the teams to directly work off our London based servers while avoiding the cost and complexity of a hybrid infrastructure solution.”

Fran Nolan, MD of content agency Tribera, explains that her company, too, found itself needing more than the basic level of collaboration platform that everyone flocked to in March 2020.

“We immediately had to get Microsoft Teams as we needed an intuitive way to meet on video as much as possible. We regularly use the chat function too to stay connected and try to keep those collaborative conversations going,” she says. “We then got GetBusy as we were finding we had too many work channels open with email, Slack andWhatsApp so we now use GetBusy which still integrates with email, but the task assignment and completion are a lot slicker.”

Transforming connections

What does all this mean for the future, both of business and of collaboration technology? One type of technology that holds some promise for meetings in particular is alternate reality, virtual reality, and extended reality – with Cloud Pro‘s sister title, IT Pro, having already trialled an example of this in the form of Vive Sync.

Jocelyn Lomer, chief executive at nuVa Enterprises, which develops a virtual meeting room application, explains to Cloud Pro that while the tools we’ve been using so far have plugged a hole, we need to build on them.

“The desktop video apps are insufficiently rich and do not deliver innovative solutions or allow the mind to range freely,” she says. “Traditional desktop collaboration tools like MS Teams and Zoom have proven to be partly sufficient, but frequently employees are left frustrated, stressed and exhausted from the limitations of the asynchronous tools.”

Shaun Lynn, CEO of channel services provider Agilitas, says that as COVID restrictions subside, businesses will begin to reconsider how they create a more collaborative and flexible workplace outside a time of crisis.

“Collaboration tools need to support this migration, with connectivity and compatibility being key focus areas,” Lynn says. “Like all software-based tools, this will be an evolution rather than a revolution. Market demand will define functionality, and the vendors of collaborative tools who respond the quickest will be the ones to succeed. Like all great tech, some will become the VHS of collaboration tools and others will be Betamax.”

All businesses, no matter their siz,e have been transforming at speed as the pandemic has re-shaped their workforces. Choosing the right collaboration tools that deliver efficient services to remote teams and individuals are now the cornerstone all companies can build upon. But business leaders should also appreciate that these tools are not just for process management. Collaboration tools can connect remote workers on a personal level. Collaboration is about work, but also reinforcing social relationships that are critical for every employee’s wellbeing.

Microsoft has partnered with the job-seeking platform GetMyFirstJob to launch an online hub that will connect UK organisations seeking to recruit digital apprentices with a wide pool of prospective applicants.

Apprenticeship Connector will simplify the recruitment process by listing vacancies across Microsoft’s network of partners and customers, which young jobseekers can access to seek new opportunities. The firm said its partners and customers will also be able to promote their vacancies to a larger and more diverse range of candidates.

GetMyFirstJob was chosen as the ideal partner platform in light of its recognition that traditional recruitment processes were exacerbating existing batteries to social mobility. Its own platform has sought to channel skills into the right areas, reaching more than 4.1 million users in 2020.

The partnership aims to solve the specific problem of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) struggling to recruit the right candidates while also aiming to raise the diversity of new recruits generally.

“Digital apprenticeships are one of the best routes to well-paid careers in businesses of all types, not just in tech,” said Microsoft’s UK CEO, Clare Barclay. “It’s why we have worked hard over the past 10 years to help provide thousands of people with the skills and training needed for the in-demand jobs of today and tomorrow. 

“Yet even in the current jobs market, the reality is there are many vacancies going unfilled. I encourage anyone thinking about getting started in digital to visit The Microsoft Apprenticeship Connector and take the next step.”

Microsoft also shared some statistics highlighting the tech recruitment problem in the UK, also referred to as the digital skills crisis. For example, the UK needs more than three million skilled people in technology roles by 2025, while almost half of UK businesses are also looking to recruit workers with the same technical skills, ranging from data analytics to cyber security, regardless of sector.

Last February, experts urged the government to reform its apprenticeship scheme after it fell short of its own targets. Figures at the time showed that the number of people starting an apprenticeship between August and October 2019 fell to 125,800 – down from 132,000 the previous year. 

This represented a 4.7% drop, although the situation is even bleaker today. The latest ONS figures show that new starts between August and October 2020 fell by a staggering 27.6% to 91,100. The effects of COVID-19 would have certainly played a role, although it nevertheless feeds into a long-term downward trend.

The UK chancellor, Rishi Sunak, also last week stressed the importance of apprenticeships as he was outlining the latest Budget. He doubled the cash incentive for employers to hire apprentices and introduced a new flexi-job programme that would allow apprentices to work with a number of different employers within one sector.

“It’s great to see Microsoft using its technology expertise to make it easier for people to engage with these fantastic opportunities,” Sunak said. “As the world becomes increasingly more digital, these skills will play a crucial role in helping us build back better from the pandemic.”

There are potentially hundreds of thousands of victims from cyber attacks exploiting newly-discovered Microsoft Exchange Server vulnerabilities, with the White House urging businesses to patch their systems immediately.

US-based victims exceed 30,000 including small businesses, towns and cities as well as local government organisations, according to security researcher Brian Krebs, with Chinese hackers determined to steal their email communications.

This figure, however, only represents a portion of “hundreds of thousands” of servers that state-backed Chinese hackers have seized, based on information provided to Krebs by two security experts. Each targeted server, deployed to process email communications, represents roughly one organisation here. 

“This is an active threat,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a press briefing, as reported by BBC News. “Everyone running these servers – government, private sector, academia – needs to act now to patch them.» 

She added that the White House was concerned “there are a large number of victims” and that these vulnerabilities discovered last week could have “far-reaching impacts”.

Microsoft patched four actively exploited flaws in several versions of its Microsoft Exchange Server service last week, which attackers were taking advantage of to steal emails from web-facing systems running the software. 

In these attacks, the perpetrators left behind a password-protected web shell that could be accessed from anywhere, giving them administrative access to victims’ servers.

The company also warned businesses that this charge was being led by state-backed hackers, specifically the Hafnium group, although refrained from disclosing how many victims there were at the time.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) then ordered US federal agencies to immediately patch their Exchange Server installations, or disconnect the programme until it can be reconfigured, for fear of falling victim to hacking attempts.

“Patching and mitigation is not remediation if the servers have already been compromised,” the White House’s National Security Council also tweeted. “It is essential that any organization with a vulnerable server take immediate measures to determine if they were already targeted.”

Vice president of Volexity, Steven Adair, who first reported the Exchange flaws to Microsoft, also told KrebsonSecurity that the hacking group first exploited these bugs on 6 January, but shifted into a much higher gear over the last few days.

“Even if you patched the same day Microsoft published its patches, there’s still a high chance there is a web shell on your server,” he said. “The truth is, if you’re running Exchange and you haven’t patched this yet, there’s a very high chance that your organization is already compromised.”

Multi-cloud environments have evolved over the years and as the digital landscape has changed, so too have enterprises.

This new way of managing online services has provided a number of benefits for many organisations. Using more than one cloud provider allows businesses greater flexibility in how they set up their digital environment as well as giving them the option to select the services and capabilities that best fit their needs.

By mixing and matching services from different providers, businesses can provide a better service to their customers and ensure they stay competitive in an ever-changing market.

However, with this new form of data management and sharing, there are always new challenges to keep in mind. If an organisation does choose to have a multi-cloud deployment, it must ensure it’s safe and secure.

According to IBM, 85% of organisations operate in a multi-cloud environment, so it’s paramount that security considerations are taken into account and the right controls are in place.

The challenges

Utilising a multi-cloud deployment comes with its own set of challenges. Storing data in multiple cloud platforms means there is a large environment to secure and different security issues to tackle from one provider to the next.

It’s useful to synchronise security policies across the different vendors that host the data so the policies are consistent across the board. Businesses also need to have complete visibility across all products, which can be complicated if they all have different security features. 

In addition, if businesses can’t monitor the whole scope of their deployments it may give attackers more space to attack or infiltrate them.

With this in mind, the security tools need to be able to view and share information across all deployments to reduce the complexity and increase efficiency. It’s also extremely important to maintain data compliance rules and have uninterrupted protection among the workloads at all times.

Identity and access management

One way of securing your multi-cloud deployment is through identity and access management (IAM). This helps to keep track of users and control access to certain data and services. It also makes life easier for IT managers to control user access to specific information across an organisation.

It essentially enables IT managers to allow users to access specific online resources like networks, storage systems, devices and more. it’s central to any directory service and helps strengthen the security of a deployment. 

Thanks to the wide variety of IT resources available, it has never been more important to have competent user management in a multi-cloud deployment to ensure the right people are accessing the right materials. Plus, by having greater control of user access, companies are able to operate more efficiently as many processes are automated instead of having to manually manage access to networks.

Regulations like GDPR also mean there is increased pressure to monitor and protect access to certain sensitive data. IAM is a great way to manage this risk and relatively low cost, meaning it’is accessible to companies of all sizes.

Identity as a service

When using IAM in the cloud, it can be complemented by using identity as a service (IDaaS) usually carried out by a third-party service provider. 

By opting to use these kinds of third party solutions, enterprises are able to manage security risks and meet legal requirements with a service that can be scaled fairly simply and extensively if needed.

IDaaS has a number of core features which are common across many providers:

Multi-factor authentication

Multi-factor authentication (MFA), also known as two-factor authentication, is a way of confirming a user’s identity by requiring two or more verification factors to gain access to an online resource. It’s more secure than just having a username or password as it requires extra identifying information.

Users must have a combination of a password and something in their physical possession like a mobile phone, token keyring, or a form of biometric technology in order to gain access to an online resource.

This is a core component of IAM and helps decrease the risk of successful cyber attacks and is essential for multi-cloud deployments.

Biometrics

Biometrics uses a person’s physical attributes for identity confirmation. The most common real-world examples of this would be fingerprint unlocking on smartphones and laptops, as well as facial recognition tech like Apple’s FaceID. This also applies to retina recognition, full facial recognition, hand or even DNA usage.

This gives your deployment additional security as a user has to be physically present to gain access to the system using their biometrics and underlines the reliability of this form of authentication as it’s based on unique data.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Single sign-on (SSO) allows users to log into one application and then be given access to other designated applications. It helps provide a seamless experience to users as they don’t have to constantly log into different services or applications and reduces the friction involved.

An example of this is Google services where by signing into your Google account you can then access Gmail, Youtube, Drive and more without having to sign in each time.

If a cloud deployment is located on different platforms, it will help users if they don’t have to use too many usernames and passwords to access certain services. By having SSO, username and password sprawl can be reduced while improving the security at the same time. As it’s harder for credentials to be compromised, there will be less of a need for multiple usernames and passwords across the services a business provides.

Making the right choice

The way businesses choose to secure their multi-cloud deployments will vary depending on how the organisation’s environment is set out and who should be able to access different parts of it.

Having the right tools in place ensures the correct security is implemented within an organisation with multiple cloud platforms. Plus, it’s a good way to reduce complexity across a deployment and by centralising the security, businesses can ensure employees or users only have access to the information they are supposed to and respect data compliance rules.

WhatsApp has updated its desktop app with new video and voice calling features, adapting its offering to the age of remote working.

The new tools will make it easier for users to answer or make calls directly from their computers, without having to reach for their mobile phones.

In order to enable desktop calling, users will be asked to grant WhatsApp permission to access their computer’s microphone and camera. They will also need to own an operating system no older than Windows 10 64-bit version 1903 or macOS 10.13.

Desktop video calls will also work “seamlessly for both portrait and landscape orientation”, appearing in a resizable standalone window.

A company spokesperson told us that the desktop app will be linked to users’ mobile app, with conversations still being based on phone numbers and requiring an active internet connection on the computer and phone alike. Although the call won’t go through the user’s phone, it will need the phone to be online to establish the call.

WhatsApp Business app users will also be able to make desktop calls, the company’s spokesperson added. However, group calls will not be supported on WhatsApp Desktop for the time being.

The company also announced that, on New Year’s Eve, it had broken “the record for the most calls ever made in a single day with 1.4 billion voice and video calls”.

The announcement comes almost a year after reports that the company was trialling a beta version of WhatsApp Web, which would let users create a group video call using Facebook Messenger Rooms. The feature, which was spotted as one of the shortcuts in the beta’s WhatsApp menus in the 2.2019.6 Web update, would allow users to make calls with up to 50 people – a significant increase from the eight-way video calls which came with WhatsApp’s April 2020 update.

April of last year also saw the release of Facebook’s Messenger Rooms, which was launched in an attempt to capitalise on the heightened demand for video conferencing during the pandemic lockdown.

Cloud-based accounting software firm Xero has announced the acquisition of workforce management platform Planday for €183.5 million (£158.5 million), considered the biggest deal for the company yet.

The sum includes an upfront payment of €155.7 million (£134.5 million), as well as a subsequent earnout payment estimated at €27.8 million (£24 million), based on product development and revenue milestones. Approximately half of the payment is to be settled in Xero Limited shares, with the remainder being “settled in cash”.

The acquisition is expected to be finalised before the end of the month, and is subject to the satisfaction of closing conditions.

Denmark-based Planday, which is a cloud-based open platform, provides businesses with a real-time view of staffing needs and payroll costs, alongside key business performance metrics. As a mobile app, it lets employers and employees communicate, collaborate on scheduling, track time, and attendance, as well as manage payroll, vacation, absence, and other labour-related compliance needs.

When integrated with accounting solutions such as Xero, it also provides additional insights which facilitate the adjustment of staffing levels to match trading conditions and control labour costs. With the acquisition, Planday is expected to expand its presence into other markets where Xero operates.

Commenting on the announcement, Xero CEO Steve Vamos said that the acquisition “aligns with [Xero’s] purpose to make life better for people in small businesses and their advisors”.

Planday CEO Christian Brøndum said that the company is “beyond excited for this next step in [its] journey”.

“Our mission is to make our customers’ day work, and make life easier for both employers and employees,» said Brøndum. «This mission fits perfectly with Xero’s passion for small businesses, for people, for growth and for communities.

«We’re looking forward to working within the Xero family to build a strong launchpad for businesses and employees to manage their time and joint potential,” he added.

The news comes less than a year after Xero announced plans to acquire Waddle, a lending platform that specialises in helping small businesses gain access to capital, for around £44 million.

Google has upgraded its Flutter toolkit to allow mobile developers to seamlessly port native apps across a breadth of operating systems and web browsers, as well as devices such as TVs, cars, and smart home appliances.

Flutter, an open source software development kit (SDK) launched by Google in December 2018, allows developers to build mobile apps across both Android and iOS devices from a single codebase using the Dart language.

The next generation, dubbed Flutter 2, is a logical extension of this principle, with developers able to programme native apps across not just Android and iOS but also Windows, macOS, and Linux systems too. This is alongside web-based experiences across Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge, as well as the operating systems powering IoT and smart devices.

“Our goal is to fundamentally shift how developers think about building apps, starting not with the platform you’re targeting but rather with the experience you want to create,” Google said in its Developer blog.

“In Flutter 2, released today, we’ve broadened Flutter from a mobile framework to a portable framework, unleashing your apps to run on a wide variety of different platforms with little or no change.”

Developing for Android devices with Android Studio, an integrated development environment (IDE), differs from developing with Flutter, in that it’s a Java-incorporated development workbench for creators to develop and debug their source code for one platform.

Using Android Studio means developers can’t build apps native to iOS as well as Android – and must jump through hoops to convert their codebase to be compatible with iPhones, or rewrite them from scratch.

Flutter, by contrast, was launched with native cross-platform development in mind, with app creators able to build applications for both iOS and Android using a single codebase. Features such as platform APIs, third-party SDKs and reusable user interface (UI) blocks lend themselves to this aim.

Google also touts Flutter as allowing you to build aesthetically-pleasing apps at-pace, in addition to making changes as your app’s running in real-time with the ‘hot reload’ feature. The ecosystem of Flutter-developed apps includes roughly 150,000 services including apps such as WeChat and Yandex Go.

Google Pay even switched to Flutter in September last year to achieve improvements in productivity and quality. By unifying the iOS and Android codebases, the development team removed roughly 500,000 lines of code. There’s also been a reported increase in the efficiency for engineers, with a reduction in work needed around releases such as security reviews and experimentation, given two codebases have been contracted to one.

Desktop support was added to an earlier alpha release of Flutter, but this has just been moved into the toolkit’s ‘stable’ channel, meaning it’s now generally available.

To make it happen, Google partnered with Canonical, the company that publishes Ubuntu, with the organisation’s engineers contributing code to support development and deployment on Linux installations.

Google has also expanded its partnership with Microsoft, with the Windows developer releasing contributions to the Flutter engine to support foldable Android devices, including new design patterns and functionality.

With Flutter 2, app developers will also find added support for the web with a focus on progressive web apps (PWAs) as well as single-page apps (SPAs) and bringing existing Flutter mobile apps to the web with shared code.

Finally, a partnership with Toyota paves the way for writing in-vehicle software using Flutter, with the car manufacturer using Flutter’s embedder API to tailor Flutter for the unique needs of its vehicles.

Identity access management firm Okta has agreed to purchase its main industry competitor Auth0 in a deal worth $6.5 billion (roughly £5.6 billion).

This merger will eventually see the two businesses’ expertise and products unify under a single brand, with Okta’s cloud-based platform expected to combine with Auth0’s device and app-based identity management suite.

Auth0 was founded in 2013, four years after Okta was established, and recently attracted $120 million (£85.9 million) of funding in its Series F round in July last year. In doing so, it attained an overall valuation of approximately $2 billion (£1.4 billion).

Okta hopes that the merger will allow the two companies to jointly address more identity management problems and use cases than they each could alone. Both platforms will be supported, invested in, and eventually integrated with one another over time.

“Combining Auth0’s developer-centric identity solution with the Okta Identity Cloud will drive tremendous value for both current and future customers,” said Okta CEO and co-founder Todd McKinnon.

“Okta’s and Auth0’s shared vision for the identity market, rooted in customer success, will accelerate our innovation, opening up new ways for our customers to leverage identity to meet their business needs. We are thrilled to join forces with the Auth0 team, as they are ideal allies in building identity for the internet and establishing identity as a primary cloud.”

The company describes its own and Auth0’s services as being complementary, with customers able to opt for one or another depending on their particular needs. While this has traditionally been true, in recent years both companies have expanded their offerings to such an extent they’ve begun to encroach on each other’s customer base.

Okta had initially aimed to be a single sign-on (SSO) platform for web applications, while Auth0 carved out a reputation for providing backend user management. Product expansion has seen the lines blur, however, and the rivalry between the companies intensify.

“Okta and Auth0 have an incredible opportunity to build the identity platform of the future,” said CEO and co-founder of Auth0, Eugenio Pace.

“We founded Auth0 to enable product builders to innovate with a secure, easy-to-use, and extensible customer identity platform. Together, we can offer our customers workforce and customer identity solutions with exceptional speed, simplicity, security, reliability and scalability. By joining forces, we will accelerate our customers’ innovation and ability to meet the needs and demands of consumers, businesses and employees everywhere.”

The boards of both companies have approved the transaction, with the acquisition expected to finalise before the end of July 2021.