Introduction
Ethikos Inc., an IT consulting firm launched in July 2024, has experienced rapid growth delivering Okta through ZeroTek, with two customers onboarded within the first month as a ZeroTek Partner, and 10 customers on the platform as of November 2024. Ethikos is committed to delivering high-value IT services to start-ups and ambitious small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) who need to focus on their core business, not their IT services. ZeroTek’s platform and unique license model makes it possible for Ethikos to include Okta’s identity and access management (IAM) as part of their services and protect their customers with industry-leading technology. ZeroTek’s team has been there for Ethikos from day one.
“That’s when I discovered Okta, which was way ahead, and totally focused
on MFA, SSO, identity, and cloud as the future.”
– Nicholas Thomas, Founder and
Principal Consultant, Ethikos
The rising importance of identity and access management
Nicholas Thomas, Founder and Principal Consultant at Ethikos, started thinking about securing identities around 2016 when the MSP he worked for put him in charge of deploying the two-factor authentication (2FA) component of Kaseya’s AuthAnvil on-premises IAM solution as a standardized service across a large customer base.
“It was a fine product for the times, but when I was researching for that project, I thought it was important to take a look outside the MSP vacuum,” Thomas says. “That’s when I discovered Okta, which was way ahead, and totally focussed on MFA, SSO, identity, and cloud as the future. And my impression was, wow, they are onto something. It was very solid. But there were a lot of barriers to MSPs adopting it as a solution for themselves, let alone smaller customers.”
A few years later, Thomas was working in an internal IT role where credential proliferation and user access management had become unwieldy.
“I knew Okta would have only improved since my last look, and I was right. Still at the top of the [Gartner] Magic Quadrant and obviously with more capabilities than in 2016,” he explains. “I did also investigate OneLogin at that time, but concluded Okta was more robust and reliable.”
His employer’s organization was large enough for Okta to be feasible, and Thomas jumped at the chance to set it up. “Okta made so many things better there, for both end users and admins. Reliable, secure access, easy user provisioning across apps—everyone benefited.”
In demand and an independent launch
Fast-forward a few more years, and Thomas was at a different MSP. That’s when he learned about ZeroTek and how it “removed all those barriers to Okta that used to exist for MSPs and smaller companies.” He’d been thinking about starting his own business for some time and was being repeatedly approached for digital leadership and consulting by people who’d witnessed his thoughtful, meticulous approach and benefited from his work in previous roles. In July 2024, Thomas took the plunge and started Ethikos as a ZeroTek Partner.
“It’s been true for a lot longer than most people realize, but no security strategy is adequate if you don’t have identity and access management (IAM),” Thomas says. “Okta is objectively the best IAM solution out there, and ZeroTek is the best way for IT service organizations to bring Okta to their customers.”
“It’s been true for a lot longer than most people realize, but no security strategy is adequate if you don’t have identity and access management (IAM).”
Rapid growth with the right support
Thomas established two Okta orgs within his first month of ZeroTek partnership, growing quickly to 10 customers by November 2024.
“I have an advantage, true, because I’ve worked with Okta before. But ZeroTek has so much good documentation and solid support, any MSP could figure this out,” he says. “I don’t need ZeroTek docs to tell me what to do, but I refer to them regularly as a kind of sanity check to make sure we’re up to date with best practices, features, and processes. They’re updated regularly as things evolve—and Okta’s always evolving. ZeroTek’s baseline configuration guide for Okta is phenomenal for that.”
Thomas also appreciates ZeroTek Technical Support. “I haven’t needed to use ZeroTek Support much, but when I have, it’s not like contacting other places where you get bounced around for ages and then when you finally reach the expert, they tell you to read online docs you’ve already looked at that don’t resolve your issue. ZeroTek Support is nothing like that. They get back to you fast, really listen, and they know what they’re talking about. It’s an intelligent discussion that feels more like a partnership, like they’re really in your corner.”
“As a business owner, I want for my customers what I want for myself—to stay with vendors and solutions because they see the value, not because they’re locked in. It makes ZeroTek | Okta a good match.”
ZeroTek | Okta as a match for Ethikos’ business philosophy
Thomas has faith in his highly customer-centric business model. “As a business owner, I want for my customers what I want for myself—to stay with vendors and solutions because they see the value, not because they’re locked in. It makes ZeroTek | Okta a good match. With Okta I get this security powerhouse that doesn’t lock me in because they’re totally vendor agnostic. With ZeroTek, I get a platform that frees me from contracts and allows me to scale and manage Okta costs on a monthly basis. Then I get to pass on all those same benefits to my customers.”
Thomas has faith in his highly customer-centric business model. “As a business owner, I want for my customers what I want for myself—to stay with vendors and solutions because they see the value, not because they’re locked in. It makes ZeroTek | Okta a good match. With Okta I get this security powerhouse that doesn’t lock me in because they’re totally vendor agnostic. With ZeroTek, I get a platform that frees me from contracts and allows me to scale and manage Okta costs on a monthly basis. Then I get to pass on all those same benefits to my customers.”
While most MSPs benefit from standardizing their entire tech stack across customers, the typical Ethikos customer needs more flexibility than the average business. Serving start-ups often means tighter cashflow, addressing unique needs, and meeting high security requirements to protect assets and innovations. Accordingly, Thomas has standardized on only two technologies he considers foundational:
- IAM through Okta
- EDR (endpoint detection and response) through CrowdStrike.
“And of course everyone has a productivity suite like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, which is easy to integrate with Okta,” he says. “But after that, our solutions and services are bespoke. And if a customer doesn’t want something we’re offering, we’ll find a solution they’re happy with.”
While most MSPs benefit from standardizing their entire tech stack across customers, the typical Ethikos customer needs more flexibility than the average business. Serving start-ups often means tighter cashflow, addressing unique needs, and meeting high security requirements to protect assets and innovations. Accordingly, Thomas has standardized on only two technologies he considers foundational:
- IAM through Okta
- EDR (endpoint detection and response) through CrowdStrike
“And of course everyone has a productivity suite like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, which is easy to integrate with Okta,” he says. “But after that, our solutions and services are bespoke. And if a customer doesn’t want something we’re offering, we’ll find a solution they’re happy with.”
“Okta is an easy sell. Customers might not have industry terms on the tip of their tongue … but they know what they want. Describe what Okta will do for them, and the response is usually ‘yes, that’s it, give us that.'”
The appeal of Okta for SMBs
Customers come to Ethikos with different levels of IT knowledge and awareness of Okta. “Some are Microsoft fans, some think their password manager will be enough, some tell us they know just enough to be dangerous,” laughs Thomas. “Most don’t know about Okta. And you know, if a client really doesn’t want Okta for whatever reason, I work with that. But honestly, Okta is an easy sell. Customers might not have industry terms on the tip of their tongue or know specifically what IAM is, but they know what they want. You just have to describe what Okta will do for them, and the response is usually ‘yes, that’s it, give us that.’”
Customers come to Ethikos with different levels of IT knowledge and awareness of Okta. “Some are Microsoft fans, some think their password manager will be enough, some tell us they know just enough to be dangerous,” laughs Thomas. “Most don’t know about Okta. And you know, if a client really doesn’t want Okta for whatever reason, I work with that. But honestly, Okta is an easy sell. Customers might not have industry terms on the tip of their tongue or know specifically what IAM is, but they know what they want. You just have to describe what Okta will do for them, and the response is usually ‘yes, that’s it, give us that.’”
Customers who visit the Okta website return to Ethikos confident about the technology, but with questions about affordability and scalability. “With ZeroTek I can assure them it’s absolutely within their range and will scale easily. I show them that we’re using it ourselves at Ethikos, and we know from experience that it works really, really well.”
As for the customers who are initially set on Microsoft, Ethikos approaches the discussion with curiosity. “I just ask, well, how are users getting created downstream? How are you handling app integrations? And you go down that line. The provisioning angle is huge because it’s one of the areas where Entra ID really falls flat. Not to mention all the weird synchronization issues rampant with the traditional Active Directory and Entra ID Connect. So, once you’ve identified their main concerns, it’s easy to demonstrate that Okta is what they are actually looking for—it does all the stuff they wish Entra ID would do.”
Customers who visit the Okta website return to Ethikos confident about the technology, but with questions about affordability and scalability. “With ZeroTek I can assure them it’s absolutely within their range and will scale easily. I show them that we’re using it ourselves at Ethikos, and we know from experience that it works really, really well.”
As for the customers who are initially set on Microsoft, Ethikos approaches the discussion with curiosity. “I just ask, well, how are users getting created downstream? How are you handling app integrations? And you go down that line. The provisioning angle is huge because it’s one of the areas where Entra ID really falls flat. Not to mention all the weird synchronization issues rampant with the traditional Active Directory and Entra ID Connect. So, once you’ve identified their main concerns, it’s easy to demonstrate that Okta is what they are actually looking for—it does all the stuff they wish Entra ID would do.” (Read more about how ZeroTek | Okta compares with Microsoft Entra ID.)
“Once they have Okta, they love it. The process is efficient, intuitive, and gratifying for end users and administrators. With Okta you say goodbye to disjointed environments and instead give the customer a clear view on their whole identity landscape.”
Delivering high-end services to customers of all sizes
With customers currently ranging in size from 3 to 400 users, Thomas is confident in the services and benefits he delivers through ZeroTek | Okta. Okta technology is what his customers need; the ZeroTek platform makes it efficient to deliver and manage it well. As a result, Ethikos delivers consistently high-level services to more customers than MSPs its size would typically support.
“With ZeroTek, we can get a customer set up with a baseline Okta configuration in about 45 minutes—and that’s including custom branding and URL, which I consider important to increase phishing resistance,” Thomas says. “After that, we take care of directory integrations, which takes maybe a couple of hours or less, and then the app integrations which are really straightforward—less than an hour each. Once everything is set up, we can focus on a customer’s quirkier, more bespoke requirements on a project basis.”
“Once they have Okta, they love it,” says Thomas. “We can onboard new users knowing they have secure access to all their apps on their first day. A colleague of mine and I call these ‘digital birthright entitlements’. On joining an organization, all birthright entitlements should be ready at first login. Similarly, if someone exits, we know that with their central identity deactivated in Okta, all downstream access to apps and systems is instantly blocked. The process is efficient, intuitive, and gratifying for end users and administrators. With Okta you say goodbye to disjointed environments and instead give the customer a clear view on their whole identity landscape.”
“Protecting identity and access for customer users is absolutely essential. I think every MSP should be trying to get Okta into people’s hands,” Thomas says, “and they should know ZeroTek is the way to do it.”
IAM is essential and ZeroTek | Okta makes it easy to deliver
Ethikos launched because Thomas had established a strong reputation for diligence, technical expertise, and high-quality results. ZeroTek helped fuel Ethikos’ early success by empowering them to deliver Okta, aligning with Ethikos’ guiding principle of giving customers the best solutions possible.
Ethikos launched because Thomas had established a strong reputation for diligence, technical expertise, and high-quality results. ZeroTek helped fuel Ethikos’ early success by empowering them to deliver Okta, aligning with Ethikos’ guiding principle of giving customers the best solutions possible.
Ethikos on ZeroTek | Okta
150
SaaS apps across clients
250
Groups managed across clients
45 min
Avg. set up custom-branded Okta org baseline
>80%
Avg. % reduction time to fully provision new users
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