Case Study: Cengage achieves scalable, secure online learning with Okta

Cengage Changing how students learn, millions of logins at a time

Cengage, a large U.S.-based education and technology company, needed to scale its digital learning platform for millions of students while improving security and reliability. As it shifted from traditional textbooks to online subscriptions and courses, it faced massive login spikes, strict uptime expectations, and the challenge of protecting student data and content from piracy. Cengage partnered with Okta to find an identity and access management solution that could handle this growth.

Okta implemented customer and workforce identity solutions for Cengage, including Adaptive MFA, Single Sign-On, Lifecycle Management, Universal Directory, and support for AWS-based scaling. The rollout took about five months and migrated tens of millions of student accounts without disruption. Since launch, Cengage has reached over 250,000 logins per minute with no hiccups, while also strengthening security for a global workforce of more than 5,000 employees and contractors.

Cengage

George Moore

Chief Technology Officer