Conclusion

SMBs are quietly shaping the future

Conclusion

Working better and safer together

SMBs have to work hard to differentiate themselves from competitors, make efficient use of fewer resources, and keep their insanely busy hybrid workforces safe and successful. As this year’s data makes clear, smaller companies often act as first movers, whose software choices and habits are reliable indicators of what’s happening (and about to happen) in the wider business world.

Conclusion

In our five-year retrospective, our SMB and small business data show a growing focus on collaboration and security apps, a sustained commitment to multipurpose productivity suites, and a steady strengthening of factors for multi-factor authentication. We’ll see if the popularity of VPN/firewall tools stays strong, and we’ll be watching this year’s fastest-growing apps (like Tailscale and Zip) to see if they can repeat next year…or even rank as most popular apps down the line.

Small and midsize businesses are a mighty subset of the wider business world. We’re glad you joined us for this journey through this vast and unique anonymized dataset made possible by thousands of Okta customers. We hope our SMBs at Work report can help you make more informed choices and improve outcomes at your organization. As for us, we’re already knee-deep in the data and diving into initial insights that’ll drive next year’s report, because we’re nerds like that. See you next year!