A faster, more consistent model for Okta deployments
Setting up a new Okta org properly isn’t complicated—but it’s detailed, and it’s easy for different engineers to make slightly different decisions from one deployment to the next. Groups need specific names. Policies need to be configured and ordered correctly. Authenticators and network zones need to be defined. For an MSP delivering Okta across multiple client environments, doing all of that carefully every time means either spending an hour or more per deployment, or accepting that your baseline configurations will probably never completely line up.
ZeroConfig is our answer to that problem—giving you the ability to create automated Okta configurations and apply them consistently across any number of client orgs.
What ZeroConfig does
ZeroConfig is a ZeroTek add-on feature that lets you define a standard Okta baseline—including groups, authenticators, network zones, policies, and security settings—once in a reusable configuration template, and then apply that template to any number of Okta orgs.
When you’re ready to set up a new client, the core workflow is simple: create the Okta org in ZeroTek, assign your ZeroConfig baseline template, and run the template against the org. The handful of steps that remain are client-specific—branding, unique network zones, and a few settings that can’t be handled through a template. What used to take an hour or more of careful manual configuration becomes a much shorter, repeatable process.
ZeroConfig doesn’t replace every manual step, and it doesn’t take decisions out of your hands. You still define what “good” looks like. ZeroConfig makes it fast and consistent to deploy what you’ve defined—whether you’re running two orgs or two hundred.
The numbers from partners using it
Element Technologies, an MSP serving law firms, describes the ZeroConfig workflow plainly: “Create the Okta org in ZeroTek, assign the baseline template, run ZeroConfig, go set up the branding—you’re done. In under an hour.” Their case study reports a 3.5x speed improvement for the essential Okta baseline configuration from end-to-end, including customizations.
For Mantle Group, which serves biotech and venture-backed organizations, a careful Okta org buildout—without any customizations—previously took about an hour. With ZeroConfig, the same baseline configuration takes about 20 minutes.
The time savings come directly from not having to manually configure each setting from scratch—and from not having to hunt through per-client documentation to verify how you spelled a group name the last time.
Why consistency matters as much as speed
The speed improvement is obvious. The consistency benefit is more subtle, but it compounds over time.
When every Okta org your team deploys shares the same core group names, policy structure, and baseline configuration, a lot downstream becomes easier. Automations you build for one client can be applied across clients without customization. New engineers have a consistent environment to work in. And when something needs to change across all your clients, you can do it systematically rather than going tenant by tenant.
Element’s Kyle Falany put it well: “If the target group has exactly the same name and is configured exactly the same way across clients, our automation doesn’t need to be customized for each tenant. It’s faster and more robust.”
Where to start
ZeroTek provides a pre-built ZeroConfig template based on our field-tested MSP best practices for a new Okta org setup. It handles the majority of the baseline configuration automatically and comes with clear documentation on the manual steps to complete afterward—no need to build from scratch.
If you want to see how automated Okta configurations can reduce deployment time and improve consistency across your customer base, take a closer look at ZeroConfig—or book a conversation with our team to see the workflow in practice.