Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, and CyberArk are often pitched as competitors — they are not. Each owns a distinct layer: workforce SSO, customer identity, and privileged access. This article shows how to combine them into a coherent IAM stack.
The three layers
- Workforce identity (SSO + MFA) — Okta or Entra ID.
- Customer identity (CIAM) — Okta CIC, Entra External ID, Auth0.
- Privileged access (PAM) — CyberArk, BeyondTrust, Delinea.
How they fit together
Workforce IdP issues SSO tokens for SaaS + Entra-joined apps. PAM vaults domain admin credentials and rotates them via CPM. CIAM handles external users separately. Conditional Access (Entra) or Okta policies gate every sign-in.
Choosing the workforce IdP
- Microsoft-heavy shop — Entra ID is the default. Free with M365.
- Best-of-breed SaaS — Okta has the deepest OIN catalog.
- Hybrid — Both, with Okta on top of Entra (federation), or vice versa.
Further reading
Authoritative sources
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