Your clients aren't Microsoft-only. Your identity layer shouldn't be either.
Entra ID is built for one ecosystem. Your clients aren't — they run Salesforce, Zoom, Google Workspace, CrowdStrike, and dozens more. ZeroTek puts Okta's vendor-neutral identity layer above all of it. You build the stack. Okta secures all of it.
Entra ID is a solid identity provider for the Microsoft ecosystem
Conditional Access policies are powerful, though they require additional licensing to use properly. MFA via Authenticator works. For a client that lives entirely inside M365 with minimal SaaS outside of it, Entra with higher level licensing for every user covers a lot of ground.
But that profile describes fewer and fewer of your clients. The average SMB uses dozens of SaaS applications—and churns a few every 12-36 months. When you need identity to work across everything all your clients are using, the limitations of a Microsoft-centric approach become a lot harder to work around.
Where MSPs running Entra ID hit friction
Entra ID covers a lot of ground inside the Microsoft ecosystem. These are the places where MSPs running it across a client base consistently hit operational limits.
Sign-in logs that don't arrive in real time
Microsoft's sign-in logs can take up to 24 hours to reflect activity—often faster, but you never know. When a client calls during a security incident asking what happened, you need the answer now, not a best guess based on incomplete data. Okta's system log updates in seconds, in a single comprehensive stream.
Policy changes that take time to propagate
Entra's Conditional Access policy changes can also take up to 24 hours to fully take effect, per Microsoft's own documentation. If you need to tighten access controls during a live incident or adjust MFA requirements for a client, that delay is an unacceptable risk. Okta policy changes are effective immediately.
An admin experience that keeps shifting
Portals get restructured. Features get renamed, moved, or deprecated. MSPs who've run Microsoft identity for years describe it as a constant moving target. Purpose-built from the start for identity management, Okta's admin interface is more stable. The learning investment your team makes today carries forward.
App coverage and integration speed across the full stack
Okta offers 8,000+ pre-built SSO integrations to Entra's 1,600+, and 800+ of them support automated provisioning — versus just over 360 for Entra. MSPs who've used both tell us Okta is faster to configure, so clean pre-built support is more likely to be there when a client adopts a new tool or you fine-tune your stack.
A broader question about where identity should live
As your clients' environments diversify, your identity layer needs to integrate cleanly with everything, not just Microsoft. Okta's platform-level integration with tools like CrowdStrike lets identity and endpoint security share context in ways Entra doesn't match. That's only possible when identity isn't tied to one vendor's ecosystem.
Separating identity from Microsoft doesn't mean abandoning M365. Your clients keep Exchange, Teams, SharePoint. M365 federates to Okta, just like every other app. What changes is that you own the identity layer, independent of any single vendor's roadmap.
ZeroTek vs Microsoft Entra
See exactly where Okta-powered identity beats a Microsoft-only approach across every dimension your IT team cares about.
How MSPs move identity above Microsoft
Okta becomes the identity provider
Your clients keep M365 for email and productivity. Okta becomes the directory and authentication layer, with M365 and every other app federated under one identity. Integration takes under two hours; go live whenever suits the client—even during business hours.
You manage it all through ZeroTek
Every client's Okta tenant is managed from a single multi-tenant dashboard. Role-based access for your techs, ConnectWise billing automation, global audit logs, and self-service Okta org creation in minutes when you onboard a new client. No Okta sales call, no annual contract.
Your clients own their Okta instance
Each client gets their own Okta org. If they leave your MSP, the org goes with them. No lock-in for you or them. That portability is a selling point in every proposal.
Worth calculating: the real cost of "included" identity
The most common reason MSPs stay on Entra is that it comes bundled with M365 licensing. But bundled doesn’t mean free. Conditional Access requires P1 or Business Premium licensing for every single user who will benefit, quickly erasing the perceived cost advantage.
Then add the operational costs: slower integrations, delayed logs during incidents, admin portals that restructure without warning, and Conditional Access policies that can take hours to propagate. The total cost of running Entra as your primary identity layer is often higher than adding Okta through ZeroTek.
See what identity looks like above Microsoft
Book a demo and we'll walk through a migration path using your actual client environments. M365 stays. Identity becomes yours.