Okta Platform gets social login integration to attract consumer-facing businesses

Okta Platform, a developer-focused offering from the identity management company, now supports using social logins, as part of the company's push to become more friendly to consumer-focused applications.

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Okta wants developers to forget writing their own identity system for new apps and instead use its Platform as a white-label authentication system for whatever they're building. On Tuesday, it announced new functionality that should make that idea more appealing for businesses that deliver services to consumers.

Developers building apps with the Okta Platform can now let users login with social networks, including Twitter and Facebook, by leveraging new support for OAuth and OpenID Connect. That means consumers who don't want to create yet another account can authenticate with their social network. (Developers may still require that users create a login, depending on what their app requires, but that's up to them.)

The move is designed to make Okta's developer offering more appealing to companies that need to market their products to consumers. Okta has worked with companies like Etihad Airways and MGM Resorts to build out the social login functionality.

Okta is also launching pre-built "widgets" for its platform, to help developers get off the ground with its products without having to write a whole lot of code. The first widget is a login system that's easily customizable with features like multi-factor authentication and security images.

"So make it beautiful, make it secure, make it social and make it fast," Okta Chief Product Officer Eric Berg said in an interview.

Prior to this announcement, the company focused on helping with business-to-business-oriented applications. Case in point: Adobe is a current Okta Platform customer, which it uses to power the login system behind the Creative Cloud suite.

All this news comes as Okta is planning to make its initial public offering sometime during the summer of 2016. The company also announced a suite of new updates to its enterprise-facing identity and mobility management products Tuesday that provide features including new tools for developers who want to connect their applications with Okta's Cloud Provisioning service.