Identity and access management solutions provider Okta has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire cloud-based business application integration and workflow automation company Azuqua. Together, Okta and Azuqua will provide organisations with a neutral, independent control centre for automating the business processes and the flow of identities between applications and services for everyone in an organisation— from employees to partners, and customers. The proposed acquisition is expected to close during Okta's fiscal first quarter, subject to the satisfaction of certain closing conditions. As every company transforms itself into a technology company, the proliferation of apps and services that power the modern business must drive efficiency, innovation and seamless end-user experiences across disparate systems. According to Okta's 2019 Businesses at Work Report, the average Okta customer has 83 cloud apps, and 9% of customers have more than 200 cloud apps. As organisations choose and adopt best-of-breed technologies, they often struggle to make all of their different applications and technologies work together and to manage them at scale. Typically, IT organisations are forced to build and maintain custom integrations or rely on manual processes. The cost and friction involved have been a huge barrier to the adoption of new technology. Okta invested early in automation for provisioning and deprovisioning apps and services with Okta's Lifecycle Management product. With Azuqua, connectors are pre-built and maintained, and workflows can be defined without code — ultimately enabling companies to deliver connected digital experiences across the organisation and deliver tailored, repeatable customer journeys. The unifying power of identity through the Okta Identity Cloud combined with Azuqua's modern, simple integration platform will enable customers to automate more of their business processes and connect to even more apps. IT teams will be able to use pre-built connectors and logic to create streamlined processes and increase operational speed. Product teams will be able to embed this technology in their own applications alongside Okta's core authentication and user management technology to build integrated customer experiences. “Identity is the unifying component that can make all of these technologies interact seamlessly and securely,” says Okta chief operating officer and co-founder Frederic Kerrest. “Azuqua's power to connect applications will improve the Okta Integration Network for Okta's customers, enabling them to unlock data, create seamless business processes and eliminate cloud silos. “We look forward to bringing on the Azuqua team to further our vision to enable any organisation to use any technology.” Azuqua founder and chief product officer Nikhil Hasija will join Okta's engineering team to help lead the company's workflow automation strategy, beginning with the integration of Azuqua's workflow offering into Okta's Lifecycle Management product.