Identity security vendor Okta unveiled a completely redesigned partner program on Monday that will shift the majority of its service delivery work to channel partners, marking the company's biggest partner program overhaul in three years. Channel Chief Laura Padilla told CRN exclusively that the new Okta Partner Accelerator program, set to launch in early 2027, introduces distinct tracks for different partner types and new incentives while fundamentally changing how the vendor approaches services. The announcement came during the company's Oktane 2026 conference in Las Vegas this week.
The refreshed program replaces Okta's previous revenue-focused structure with an approach that emphasizes outcomes over transactions. Partners can now participate in separate sales, services, or technology tracks—the last designed for independent software vendors integrating products with Okta—with each track containing three tiers. The vendor has already begun requiring its account executives to identify which services partner will be involved for every opportunity, aiming to bring partners into services discussions from the start rather than after software sales close. On the incentives front, Okta is introducing rewards for landing brand-new customers and for migrating customers from competing platforms, while developing deployment incentives to help partners accelerate implementation and product usage.
According to Padilla, who joined Okta as channel chief in January after leading Zoom's global channel during its pandemic growth surge, the company's services organization will evolve into a more specialized group focused on subject matter expertise and complex implementations rather than handling service delivery directly. "From a services delivery point of view, most of our services will be done over time, as we evolve this, through partners," Padilla said. She explained that Okta's prior transactional program was "really missing partners helping us in this new world where customers are asking for expertise and guidance across the whole lifecycle." The redesigned program aims to accommodate a wider variety of partners, from boutique consultancy firms performing AI assessments to global systems integrators with established security and identity practices.
The shift to partner-led services comes as Okta expands beyond its core identity security offerings into identity governance, privileged access, and AI agent security—products that require more specialized implementation and design expertise than the vendor's original capabilities. Padilla noted that customers increasingly want to consolidate identity security tools onto a single neutral platform, and partners will be central to delivering those outcomes. The timing aligns with strong partner engagement: Okta President and COO Eric Kelleher told CRN that partners played a role in each of the vendor's 20 largest deals during its most recent quarter, which ended July 31 and helped drive results that beat expectations. Those deals included a major implementation of multiple technologies, including AI agent security for a large enterprise customer, as Okta's AI pipeline begins converting amid customer urgency around deployed agents they know are exposed.
Seattle-based partner Slalom, ranked No. 33 on CRN's 2026 Solution Provider 500, said the updates should make Okta's program easier to work with while providing better recognition of partner value. The separation of sales and service delivery "was there to some extent [previously], having different metrics for each of those tracks has been amazing," said Pez Nikpour, senior director for cyber strategy at Slalom. Paul Pinto, director for IAM capability at the firm, added that the approach should help Slalom engage sooner with customers while keeping the focus on solving business problems instead of completing licensing deals. The strategic pivot mirrors what solution providers increasingly demand from vendor partnerships: genuine collaboration on customer outcomes rather than transactional handoffs after the sale. For channel organizations that have built deep expertise in identity and security, the new structure promises earlier involvement and clearer paths to recognition—if they can deliver the specialized skills Okta's expanding platform now requires.