1Password’s CFO says it won’t compete with Okta

Digital password management company 1Password this week announced plans to expand the sign-in features of its services – starting with something the company calls Universal Sign On which it says can make signing in to different websites or services even easier.

1Password already sells subscription services to businesses large and small looking to control and secure access to various passwords among staff – and now it’s looking to make Universal Sign On work alongside authentication products. multi-factor like Duo and single sign-on (SSO) products like Okta (depending on business needs).

While announcing a new funding round valuing the company at $6.8 billion, 1Password launched a “vision of the future” website featuring a simplified idea of ​​how 1Password can help make logins easier by remembering the single sign-on method used on which site and route. for you (thus continuing the tradition of only needing the namesake “one password”).

Tom Warren with The edge joined the CEO and founders of 1Password in a Twitter Space talk on Wednesday, asking:

“How will 1Password try to solve the challenges of universal login and, in particular, if you’re trying to compete with Okta, Active Directory and others in this space?”

1Password CFO Jeannie De Guzman responded:

“We’re actually partners with Okta and we’re an Okta store at 1Password. When I think of competing with Okta…we don’t think of them as a direct competitor. When you use Okta within a business, it’s is often a lot of enterprise-grade software that you’ve deployed enterprise-wide…there’s a huge proliferation of SaaS applications that are being used by all of us at work right now.Those onesies and twosies that go to one person or a small group of people…those don’t necessarily get caught in Okta”

Guzman explains the problem with ‘shadow IT’, where people may still have access to things not governed by Okta SSO or have accounts for work that IT doesn’t know about – and that’s where Guzman says 1Password can cooperate with Okta (or other SSOs). ).

“We capture all of those connections that aren’t captured enterprise-wide.” Guzman gave an example of this as someone who has worked in finance at various companies: financial services could provide access to bank accounts with a single sign-on solution using 1Password, even if they are not configured for SSO access. Okta-style. Guzman further explained that many companies might have a finance department employee who just left and yet still knows the bank account password.

Today, the company posted on its blog to further explain how 1Password will work with SSO solutions and why businesses should really use its product:

It’s important to note that SSO doesn’t solve all of your security problems, just a subset of them. For example, if a service is not integrated with your SSO platform, employees can create an account themselves, bypassing SSO altogether.

You can also check out the full 1Password Twitter Space recording below.