Okta Report: Office 365 Leads in Cloud Adoption, But...

Every year, Okta analyzes millions of software-as-a-service (SaaS) logins processed through its authentication platform. The company compiles this information to identify the most frequently used applications and releases an annual report detailing its findings. This year’s report revealed that Microsoft Office 365 is, by a significant margin, the most popular tool.

It is important to recognize that while application usage differed depending on location, Office 365 consistently ranked first across all regions, both globally and within specific geographic breakdowns. No other application in the report demonstrated such widespread and consistent adoption, indicating extensive worldwide use of Office 365 (at least among organizations utilizing Okta’s services).

However, as with all cloud-based services, determining a clear “winner” based solely on login numbers is not straightforward. The cloud computing landscape is inherently complex, and the use of one tool does not necessarily prevent users from employing competing solutions.

For example, the report indicated that 36% of Microsoft 365 customers also utilize Google Workspace (previously G Suite), which provides a comparable suite of office productivity applications. Furthermore, Okta’s data showed that 42% of Office 365 users were also using Zoom, and 32% were using Slack.

This is particularly noteworthy considering that Office 365 includes Teams, offering similar functionality at no additional cost. Similarly, Google provides Google Hangouts, yet users often choose the tools they prefer, sometimes opting for competing versions of the same type of application. The report also showed that among Office 365 users, 44% are using Salesforce, 41% are using AWS, 15% are using Smartsheet, and 14% are using Tableau (which is owned by Salesforce). Microsoft offers products that fall into each of these categories.

While Microsoft is undoubtedly a large corporation with a diverse product portfolio, the report challenges the assumption that popularity of Office 365 translates into widespread enthusiasm for other Microsoft products or guarantees brand loyalty across its entire range, or even within the same product category.

The data presented in this report offers valuable insights, although it’s crucial to understand its limitations. It doesn’t provide a complete overview of the entire SaaS market, but rather a detailed look at the SaaS usage patterns of Okta’s customer base, specifically within the Okta Integration Network (OIN). The company acknowledges this in the report’s methodology.

“When reviewing this report, it’s important to remember that the data reflects the usage of Okta’s customers, the applications and integrations connected through the OIN, and how users access these tools through our platform,” the report explains.

Nevertheless, the report provides a unique perspective on the state of SaaS, leveraging data from 9,400 Okta customers and 6,500 integrations with leading SaaS applications. This gives the company a distinctive vantage point into the world of SaaS. The key takeaway is that the cloud environment is intricate, and it’s not a situation where one company’s gain necessarily means another’s loss. Success in one area does not automatically guarantee overall dominance.