Okta Aerial and ZeroTek: the rest of the story

Aerial isn't a rival to ZeroTek — it's the foundation we built on. And it's what lets us offer MSPs Okta SKUs month-to-month, available nowhere else.

Bottom Line Up Front

Okta Aerial isn't a competitor to ZeroTek. It's the foundation ZeroTek spent over a year building on. The result is something no other Okta Technology Partner can offer: supported Okta SKUs delivered to MSPs on month-to-month, consumption-based billing, available only when you deliver Okta to your clients through ZeroTek. Aerial is now the platform layer everything runs on, and as of December 3, 2025, every new Okta org is on it by default.

Key Takeaways
  • ZeroTek worked closely with Okta on Aerial integration for over a year (longer than Aerial was publicly known). Aerial is now foundational to how ZeroTek works, not a rival to it.
  • Aerial makes it possible for ZeroTek to offer Okta SKUs on month-to-month, consumption-based billing—something Okta doesn't offer directly to anyone, and no other Okta Technology Partner can match. You get it only as an MSP delivering Okta through ZeroTek.
  • ZeroTek's Okta Pro license already covers the adaptive MFA, broad SSO, and lifecycle management most SMB clients need; month-to-month Okta add-ons let MSPs layer on more security precisely when a client's needs call for it.

There was more to the story

When Okta announced Aerial in December 2025, we published a post explaining how Aerial compared to ZeroTek. The short version at the time: Aerial was built for large enterprises managing many internal Okta orgs, and ZeroTek was the layer that made Okta work for MSPs managing independent SMB clients. Both things were true.

What we didn't say, because we couldn’t yet, was that we had already been working with Okta on Aerial integration for over a year.

We were deep in it. There were technical challenges to work through, and the timeline wasn't settled enough to announce publicly. So, we wrote an honest post about what Aerial was, said it wasn't designed for MSPs, and left it at that.

We can tell the rest of the story now.

What's happening

Okta is making Aerial the foundational infrastructure layer for all managed Okta orgs. It's not a product you opt into for its feature set; it's the platform that everything else runs on going forward. Okta has been investing heavily in this as part of their roadmap, and the rest of the industry is, in many ways, trying to catch up to where they've been heading.

The question for MSPs was never really "Aerial vs ZeroTek." The real question was: do MSPs benefit from Aerial? The answer is yes, through ZeroTek—the partner Okta has chosen to carry their platform investments into the MSP channel. As of December 3, 2025, every new Okta org is on Aerial by default.

What ZeroTek built with Okta

Working alongside Okta's team, we built the integration that brings Aerial's capabilities to MSPs, the most significant being: monthly consumption-based billing for supported Okta SKUs, exclusive to ZeroTek. Okta doesn't offer these SKUs this way directly to anyone, and no other Okta partner can either. You get them on this basis only as an MSP or MSSP delivering Okta to your clients through ZeroTek.

Beyond billing, Aerial as the underlying infrastructure means:

  • More consistent org administration across your client base

  • Simpler org creation and deletion

  • Faster provisioning across a much wider range of Okta SKUs

  • A stronger foundation for new Okta capabilities as they're released

What this opens up for you

Here's the part that matters day to day. A wide range of Okta security SKUs is now available to you month-to-month, per user, on demand with no annual contract, no minimum user commitment. Turn a capability on for the client that needs it. Turn it off whenever you choose. This consumption-based model is exclusive to ZeroTek. You can't get these SKUs this way from Okta directly or from any other partner.

That changes what's practical. Capabilities you'd have skipped because an annual license didn't fit a client's size or a project's timeline are now something you can deploy the moment there's a reason to. A few that solve problems most MSPs know well:

Okta Workflows – the repetitive manual operations problem. If you're running the same steps by hand across a larger client or dozens of tenants, Workflows will save you significant time as a no-code automation engine that handles a broad range of actions across Okta and third-party systems. ZeroTek’s Okta Pro license includes five Okta Workflows for free, and we offer partners a library of pre-built workflows for common tasks, but this is how pro-automation MSP practices easily get more.

Okta Device Access (ODA) – the endpoint gap. MFA protects your apps, but the desktop login itself is often still just a password. ODA extends Okta MFA and FastPass to Windows and macOS login. Deploy it for the client with compliance requirements or a recent scare.

Okta Identity Threat Protection (ITP) – the risk that emerges after login. Standard authentication policies are checked once, at sign-in, but sessions can be compromised mid-stream through token theft, impossible-travel logins, or credentials exposed in a breach. ITP continuously detects and responds to identity threats throughout the session, using risk signals, behavioral analysis, and adaptive policy enforcement to require step-up re-authentication or terminate a session the moment risk changes. Ideal for clients with high security needs.

That's the shift for MSPs running on Okta Aerial through ZeroTek: security you can match to the situation, when the situation calls for it.

ZeroTek's Okta Pro license covers what most SMB clients need, with adaptive MFA, broad SSO, and lifecycle management in one strong baseline; you can layer on month-to-month add-ons where a client's needs run deeper. And because it's month-to-month, the economics work for everyone: no annual lock-in, spend that tracks the true need, and cash flow that fits how MSPs and their clients both like to buy.

The full set of available add-ons, with details on each, lives in our Help Center. Browse the Okta add-ons.

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