“Okta was the proven solution. ZeroTek was the experienced innovator. We could see immediately how the technology was going to work really well for us and our customers.”
– Dan Le, Founder and CEO, Red Cup IT
Executive Summary
Red Cup IT wanted to free themselves from the functional limitations and administrative inefficiencies that came with managing multiple customer environments and identities using AWS IAM, Microsoft Entra Conditional Access, and Google Workspace Enterprise Context-Aware Access. Rigorous evaluation of other commercial solutions left them disappointed.
In ZeroTek | Okta, Red Cup IT found what they needed to efficiently deliver and manage an exceptional security experience for their customers in heavily regulated industries like finance, healthcare, and B2B SaaS services.
Introduction
ZeroTek makes it easy for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to resell, deploy, and manage Okta’s enterprise-class Identity and Access Management (IAM) from a multi-tenant single dashboard.
Over 14 years in business, Red Cup IT has established its expertise and leadership as an MSP that specializes in IT operations support, security, and the delivery of complex projects. Based in California, Red Cup IT positions itself as a security-first MSP that takes “a secure-by-design approach where we implement a threat-informed defensive technology platform that doesn’t compromise the end-user experience,” says Dan Le, Founder and CEO at Red Cup IT. Their customer base largely consists of businesses in regulated industries with complex technological and security needs. Partnering with ZeroTek in the middle of 2022 marked a turning point for their organization.
“Passwords were just not cutting it. I knew we needed an identity provider to deliver the security and functionality our customers required, and to streamline our management.”
Too many identities, too many passwords
Red Cup IT supports many businesses that demand a high level of assurance and security around their tech stack.
Many of Red Cup IT’s customers are in industries with regulatory compliance standards, such as financial services, healthcare, technology, or B2B SaaS services. Those customer environments typically use some combination of Microsoft, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Amazon Web Services (AWS), with end users requiring secure access to multiple critical systems.
Red Cup IT supports many businesses that demand a high level of assurance and security around their tech stack.
Many of Red Cup IT’s customers are in industries with regulatory compliance standards, such as financial services, healthcare, technology, or B2B SaaS services. Those customer environments typically use some combination of Microsoft, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Amazon Web Services (AWS), with end users requiring secure access to multiple critical systems.
Red Cup IT admins were hampered by the lack of feature parity between Microsoft Partner accounts and internal Microsoft Admin accounts.
The discrepancy meant they had to create, secure, and manage multiple accounts for their admins to ensure the access privileges required to do their jobs.
“We were on top of the security part, but the administrative overhead in managing this proliferation of accounts and identities was clearly unsustainable and so obviously inefficient,” explains Le. “Passwords were just not cutting it. I knew we needed an identity provider [IdP] to deliver the security and functionality our customers required, and to streamline our management.”
Red Cup IT admins were hampered by the lack of feature parity between Microsoft Partner accounts and internal Microsoft Admin accounts.
The discrepancy meant they had to create, secure, and manage multiple accounts for their admins to ensure the access privileges required to do their jobs.
“We were on top of the security part, but the administrative overhead in managing this proliferation of accounts and identities was clearly unsustainable and so obviously inefficient,” explains Le. “Passwords were just not cutting it. I knew we needed an identity provider [IdP] to deliver the security and functionality our customers required, and to streamline our management.”
Other solutions didn’t deliver
“As a kind of interim measure, we tried to simplify things by deploying YubiKeys, but too many accounts then required manual deprovisioning when customers had staff turnover,” recalls Le. “But we were still in pursuit of a well-designed third-party IdP solution. I really wasn’t ready to put all our eggs in one basket with Microsoft as IdP.”
“Their feature set didn’t impress me, and Conditional Access in Microsoft just feels like there’s always something slightly broken or not working as expected, and then there are edge cases that can’t be addressed at all.”
Red Cup IT tried several other options, without success. “We looked at Google Workspace’s identity solution, but it was clunky, and the documentation wasn’t good,” Le adds. “We went on to evaluate many commercial IdPs and each one had critical shortcomings. Sacrifices had been made in different areas. Some would do SSO well but lack provisioning, for example. Others would have a poor user experience or just break.”
“When we ran the ZeroTek-Okta solution through our evaluation process, we were very happy to confirm it met our high standard and completely removed those barriers.”
ZeroTek brings the power of Okta to MSPs
Then another MSP told Le that they were using the ZeroTek | Okta solution and were happy with it.
“I googled ZeroTek and Okta and realized—this could be exactly what we’d been looking for. I knew Okta had the security, SCIM, user experience, and provisioning we wanted, but I’d dismissed Okta because their contract terms, licensing, and deployment were significant barriers to us as an MSP managing multiple different-sized customers. When we ran the ZeroTek-Okta solution through our evaluation process, we were very happy to confirm it met our high standard and completely removed those barriers.”
Then another MSP told Le that they were using the ZeroTek | Okta solution and were happy with it.
“I googled ZeroTek and Okta and realized—this could be exactly what we’d been looking for. I knew Okta had the security, SCIM, user experience, and provisioning we wanted, but I’d dismissed Okta because their contract terms, licensing, and deployment were significant barriers to us as an MSP managing multiple different-sized customers. When we ran the ZeroTek-Okta solution through our evaluation process, we were very happy to confirm it met our high standard and completely removed those barriers.”
The ZeroTek | Okta solution combined Okta’s industry-leading IAM—which functioned as the unified IdP Red Cup IT wanted—with ZeroTek’s multitenant MSP platform. With ZeroTek’s month-to-month licensing, instant Okta Org creation, and single-pane-of-glass management for all their customers, the solution delivered the capabilities Red Cup considered essential. Once Red Cup IT made the decision, it did not take long for them to partner with ZeroTek and start rolling out Okta.
“Okta was the proven solution. ZeroTek was the experienced innovator,” says Le. “We could see immediately how the technology was going to work really well for us and our customers.”
Red Cup IT admins were hampered by the lack of feature parity between Microsoft Partner accounts and internal Microsoft Admin accounts.
The discrepancy meant they had to create, secure, and manage multiple accounts for their admins to ensure the access privileges required to do their jobs.
“We were on top of the security part, but the administrative overhead in managing this proliferation of accounts and identities was clearly unsustainable and so obviously inefficient,” explains Le. “Passwords were just not cutting it. I knew we needed an identity provider [IdP] to deliver the security and functionality our customers required, and to streamline our management.”
“We get customers up and running fast. They have secure access to their email and apps and they don’t waste time thinking about passwords anymore.”
Automated processes and streamlined operations
Red Cup IT has made the most of Okta’s significant capabilities, consolidating Microsoft, Google, and other identity directories in each Okta Organization, then leveraging Okta’s SCIM-based Lifecycle Management (LCM) for automated user provisioning and deprovisioning. “It hardly takes any time at all to onboard and offboard customer users now,” says Le.
Adopting ZeroTek | Okta has improved Red Cup IT’s processes and productivity across the business. “Previously, we had to manually configure, say, lockdown policies for each app and repeat this process customer by customer,” Le recalls. “With ZeroTek | Okta, we’ve automated this process. We get customers up and running fast. They have secure access to their email and apps and they don’t waste time thinking about passwords anymore.”
Exceptional scalability for diverse customer environments
The scalability and agility of the ZeroTek | Okta solution is also important to Red Cup IT. Thanks to ZeroTek’s monthly licensing model, rapid Okta Org creation, and other automation features, Red Cup IT finds it easy to deliver a fully scalable identity management system that is ready for cloud, hybrid, and rapid-growth environments.
“With ZeroTek | Okta, we can get even the smallest customers configured and licensed on Okta early, then deploy proven configurations and policies at scale as they grow and add users,” Le explains. “It’s so easy to create an Okta Org from ZeroTek. We typically do it as a proof of concept for prospects and customers. Not only is it really effective from a sales perspective, but we can just keep using that Org for the customer once they’ve signed up.”
“[ZeroTek Support] is incredibly responsive. You don’t get that with most other solutions.”
Ongoing benefits for MSPs and their customers
“ZeroTek | Okta is a big part of how we deliver a solid experience for customers in very demanding industries,” Le adds. “Our customers like Okta. They save a lot of time with passwordless login and can just focus on their work.”
Le lists some of the many benefits Red Cup IT has enjoyed internally. “Okta policies are much more granular and easier to configure than Microsoft Conditional Access, and then ZeroTek lets us automate and streamline deployment of those policies. So that’s a big reduction in administrative overhead.”
“ZeroTek | Okta is a big part of how we deliver a solid experience for customers in very demanding industries,” Le adds. “Our customers like Okta. They save a lot of time with passwordless login and can just focus on their work.”
Le lists some of the many benefits Red Cup IT has enjoyed internally. “Okta policies are much more granular and easier to configure than Microsoft Conditional Access, and then ZeroTek lets us automate and streamline deployment of those policies. So that’s a big reduction in administrative overhead.”
It’s also brought efficiencies to Red Cup IT’s help desk. “Consider that now things like password reset requests are basically nonexistent with ZeroTek | Okta,” Le explains. “That means our help desk is better than ever, because they’re freed up to focus on more critical tasks. We’ve been able to use Okta to roll out mobile device management (MDM), which our customers really like as a layer of assurance, and which we really like for the visibility on how well protected devices are. As an MSP, all of this is really only possible with ZeroTek | Okta.”
Red Cup IT’s experience with ZeroTek Support has also been overwhelmingly positive. “They’re incredibly responsive,” he adds. “You don’t get that with most other solutions.”
It’s also brought efficiencies to Red Cup IT’s help desk. “Consider that now things like password reset requests are basically nonexistent with ZeroTek | Okta,” Le explains. “That means our help desk is better than ever, because they’re freed up to focus on more critical tasks. We’ve been able to use Okta to roll out mobile device management (MDM), which our customers really like as a layer of assurance, and which we really like for the visibility on how well protected devices are. As an MSP, all of this is really only possible with ZeroTek | Okta.”
Red Cup IT’s experience with ZeroTek Support has also been overwhelmingly positive. “They’re incredibly responsive,” he adds. “You don’t get that with most other solutions.”
“I couldn’t imagine doing this without Okta or ZeroTek.”
A future without passwords
“Anyone who stays on top of cybersecurity will know there’s going to be a general move toward passwordless,” Le says. “Companies of all sizes are going to mandate moving to SSO. They’re going to be required to have a high level of assurance or people won’t do business with them. MSPs should be ready for this, because it’s coming and it’s going to affect your customers, big and small. Just using Google or Microsoft may not be enough—especially if it represents a single point of failure. You really want a proven third party for your IdP and to build in layers of security
and assurance.”
Red Cup IT’s experience with ZeroTek | Okta demonstrates the power of using the right IAM solution when an MSP’s priorities are to deliver top-tier security, provide a low-friction end-user experience, and streamline internal operations.
“I couldn’t imagine doing this without Okta or ZeroTek,” Le says.
Red Cup IT on ZeroTek | Okta
95%
Password reset tickets eliminated
0
Successful identity-based cyberattacks
99%
Microsoft account lockouts eliminated
700+
Managed SaaS apps
1500
Managed groups
Are you ready?
Ready to explore how ZeroTek | Okta can help your MSP deliver next-level security services to your customers?
