The company also won both 2024 AWS Global Marketplace Partner of the Year and Google Cloud Technology Partner of the Year awards.

But beneath these accolades lies a deeper transformation worth studying.

The Okta’s Data Tells a Compelling Story:

• Partner deals are 3X+ larger than average direct sales

• 8 out of top 10 global deals in Q2’24 had partner contribution

• "All of our top 10 deals in Q3 involved partners... approximately $20M in ACV" - CEO

• 40%+ of business goes through partners "in terms of billing on their paper"

What's fascinating is how Okta proactively engineered this shift.

Let's break down their playbook:

Embracing Multi-Partner Collaboration

CFO Brett Tighe revealed that the company involves various types of partners at the same time:

"What's interesting about those top 10 deals [all involved partners]... it was GSIs, ISVs, marketplaces, traditional VARs. It was a mix of them all."

This wasn't accidental. Okta deliberately built an ecosystem spanning:

• Global System Integrators (GSIs)

• Cloud Marketplaces

• ISVs

• VARs

• MSPs

CRO Jon Addison frames it clearly:

"Our partner ecosystem isn't just an extension of our sales team—it's a vital component of our growth and innovation strategy."

Aligning with Partners for Success

CEO Todd McKinnon personally prioritizes partner-first strategy and GSIs in particular: "[GSIs] it's something I've personally been working on, and we have a high priority on, and I'm excited to make progress."

Their strategy includes executive-level engagement and tactical alignment - CFO explains:

"A good example would be one of those GSIs coming to our executive leadership offsite…to go spend time with us, be able to align better, be able to say, hey, this is where we -- how we can partner better. We obviously have teams dedicated to each one of these partners.

And so, it's really us diving in deep and trying to go through the tactical of, OK, you're going to do this, we're going to do that, how can we help each other, both make each other a bunch of money?”

Cloud Marketplace Excellence

The company won 2024 Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace Global Partner of the Year.

This recognized Okta’s record-breaking results, driven by “focusing on co-selling and co-innovating with AWS for global customers”.

Okta's cloud strategy shows impressive technical depth:

• Product is natively built on AWS with over 25 integrations live today

• It was a launch partner for AWS Fabric, AWS Amplify, and AWS Security Lake, among others.

The company's presence in the AWS Marketplace has grown exponentially since their partnerships was formalized in 2021, focusing on private offers, co-selling, and ongoing market expansion.

Okta's was also recognized in 2024 as Google Cloud Technology Partner of the Year 2024 for Productivity and Collaboration.

Partner-First Growth Strategy

The company leaned on partners and marketplaces over the last few years, before formally announcing its “partner-first growth strategy” in 2024.

Okta committed to elevating partners' role across all functions - from sales and marketing to product development and customer service.

As Bill Hustad, SVP Partner & Alliances explains:

"We're on a multi-year journey to become a world-class, partner-first company. We realize that embedding partners into the fabric of your company doesn't happen overnight. We’re committed to evolving our go-to-market motion, co-investing across the ecosystem, and elevating the partner experience.”

The partner opportunity in identity and security is massive. Okta underscores that “security is a partner-driven market. According to Canalys, 73% of global IT spending goes through partners, but that figure jumps to over 90% in cybersecurity.”

As a core security technology, identity is naturally partner-driven - a fact Okta has now masterfully leverages.

What's your view - is this partner-first approach the new blueprint for SaaS growth?