Why Okta Doesn't Back Up Your Workflows (And What To Do About It)

The scenario nobody prepares for

An admin opens the Okta Workflows console on a Monday morning. They're cleaning up old flows, archiving folders, reorganizing after a migration. One click on the wrong folder. Delete. Confirm.

Fifty flows gone. Six months of work. The user provisioning logic, the deprovisioning automations, the compliance reporting flows that took weeks to build and test.

They open a ticket with Okta support. The response: "We can't restore Workflows."

This isn't hypothetical. During two years of hosting Okta Workflows Office Hours, this was the most common disaster scenario I heard about. And it kept happening because most teams don't realize the gap until it's too late.

What Okta actually backs up (and what it doesn't)

Okta maintains infrastructure-level redundancy for their platform. If an Okta data center goes down, your tenant stays up. That's standard SaaS availability.

But that's not the same as backing up your configurations. Here's the distinction:

• Okta protects: Platform uptime, database replication, infrastructure failover
• Okta does NOT protect: Your custom Workflows flows, your policy configurations, your app assignments, your group rules, your automation logic

There is no "undo" button. There is no recycle bin for Workflows. There is no Okta support workflow that restores a deleted flow to its previous state.

If a flow gets deleted, modified incorrectly, or wiped by a compromised account, it's gone.

Why Workflows are especially vulnerable

Workflows are different from other Okta resources. They represent logic, not just configuration. A group is a list of members. An app assignment is a mapping. But a Workflow is a program -- conditionals, API calls, data transformations, error handling, retry logic.

That means:

• They take the longest to build. A complex provisioning flow can take days or weeks to design, build, and test.
• They're the hardest to recreate from memory. You might remember your group rules, but can you reconstruct a 30-step flow with branching logic?
• They have hidden dependencies. Flows reference tables, connections, other flows, and external APIs. Delete one piece and others break silently.
• They store data. Workflows Tables contain operational data that feeds your automations. Lose the table, lose the data.

The breach changed everything

After the October 2023 support system breach, Okta diverted significant engineering resources to close security gaps that were exposed. The discovery of how the support user (now called super user) access was exploited meant entire engineering teams shifted focus from product innovation to security hardening.

That was the right call for Okta's security posture. But it had a side effect: features and tooling improvements that Workflows users were waiting for got delayed or deprioritized. Backup and disaster recovery for customer configurations was never on Okta's roadmap, and after the breach, it certainly wasn't going to be.

Meanwhile, during that same period, Okta experienced several service disruptions. Customers managing the transition between Okta Classic Engine and Okta Identity Engine were dealing with configuration complexity across two platforms simultaneously, adding another layer of risk to their identity infrastructure.

The message was clear: you can't rely on your identity provider to protect your configurations. That's your responsibility.

What you can do today

Even without a dedicated backup tool, there are steps you can take right now:

1. Export what you can manually

Okta Workflows supports flow export as JSON files. Make it a habit:

• Export critical flows weekly
• Store exports in version control (Git)
• Document what each export contains

The problem: this is manual, doesn't capture Tables data, doesn't capture connections, and doesn't scale.

2. Document your Workflows architecture

Create a map of your flows:

• Which flows depend on which tables
• Which connections each flow uses
• What external APIs are called
• What the expected behavior is for each flow

If you ever need to rebuild, this documentation is your lifeline.

3. Use version control for flow JSON

When you export flows, commit them to a Git repository. This gives you:

• History of changes over time
• Ability to diff versions
• A record of who changed what and when

4. Automate backups with a purpose-built tool

Manual exports don't scale. They miss Tables data, connections, and the broader Okta configuration that your Workflows depend on. A backup solution built specifically for Okta captures everything:

• All Workflows flows, folders, and configurations
• Workflows Tables and their data
• Connections and credential references
• Plus the 45+ other Okta resource types your flows interact with (users, groups, apps, policies, authorization servers, and more)

Butterfly Security was built specifically for this problem. It runs automated backups on a schedule, encrypts everything with AES-256, and gives you point-in-time restore so you can roll back to any previous state.

The real cost of not having backups

When a Workflows disaster happens, the cost isn't just the time to rebuild. It's:

• Downtime for automated processes. If your provisioning flows are gone, new employees don't get access. If your deprovisioning flows are gone, former employees keep access.
• Compliance gaps. SOC 2 and HIPAA auditors ask about disaster recovery. "We don't have backups" is not an acceptable answer.
• Security exposure. A compromised admin account can wipe your security automation. Without backups, you can't restore your security posture quickly.
• Team productivity. Every hour spent rebuilding flows is an hour not spent on new projects.

Start protecting your Workflows now

If you've been building Workflows for months or years, you've invested serious time and expertise into that automation. Don't leave it unprotected.

At minimum, start exporting your critical flows today. Better yet, set up automated backups that capture everything and let you restore with confidence.

Your Workflows are too valuable to lose to an accidental click, a rogue admin, or the next security incident.