By Arko Chandra Published on : Oct 10, 2022
Security has become a non-negotiable element when it comes to digital applications. If you are a SaaS seller, you cannot compromise the security of your product. Not only it secures the data of your customers, but it also appeals to more potential buyers.
Single Sign-On, or SSO, has emerged as a significant concept to secure applications. So, what should you do as a SaaS seller – buy a third-party SSO solution and integrate it with your SaaS app or build your in-house SSO feature?
Let’s ask you some key questions to help you get your answer.
Before you task your engineers with developing an SSO solution for your SaaS product, you need to confirm that they have a solid grasp of the SAML protocol and SSO authentication. If they are new to the concept, they have to go through quite a lot of research and learning before they can accurately set it up.
You cannot risk getting it wrong when it comes to authentication, as it poses a major security concern. So, your tech team would also need to learn how to mitigate risks characteristic of SSO and SAML implementation. Even if your developers could learn SSO, you are the one to consider if doing so would be the best use of their time or if you could use their skills for other tasks.
The age of your SaaS firm and the strength of your engineering team can help you answer this question. It’s sensible to go for buying an external SSO solution instead of building it in-house when your company is in its early years.
It’s so because there are always opportunity costs associated with software development. When you pull out a few members of your core product team to build SSO software from scratch, you slow down the production process of the product, which is the primary source of your revenue. Can you really afford to have your developers working on SSO creation instead of your core product?
Configuring SSO with your application is not a one-time thing. Your team needs to integrate multiple identity providers (IdPs) with your application for customers with varied IdPs to use. What makes it so challenging is that for each IdP, your engineers need to build a whole new SAML flow, and on top of that, different IdPs handle the SAML flow differently.
Even with your engineering team working full-time, it could take months to configure enough IdPs so as to provide the SSO feature to the majority of your potential customers. On the contrary, buying a third-party SSO solution and integrating it with your SaaS application can save you this hassle. Many SSO platforms are available in the market, which require little to no coding expertise to integrate them with your app.
Although authentication has become synonymous with the digital world, only a few people actually understand the nitty-gritty of building an SSO solution. That brings us to a crucial question – will your in-house SSO-building team get the necessary support when it gets stuck? The fact is that even in the online developer community, there’s a very low percentage of support available when it comes to SSO & SAML creation and troubleshooting.
If your answer to any of the above questions is NO, you may not be ready to build an SSO solution on your own. It may be best if you go for the “buy” option to add an authentication layer to your SaaS product.
By Arko Chandra
Published on 10th, Oct, 2022
Security has become a non-negotiable element when it comes to digital applications. If you are a SaaS seller, you cannot compromise the security of your product. Not only it secures the data of your customers, but it also appeals to more potential buyers.
Single Sign-On, or SSO, has emerged as a significant concept to secure applications. So, what should you do as a SaaS seller – buy a third-party SSO solution and integrate it with your SaaS app or build your in-house SSO feature?
Let’s ask you some key questions to help you get your answer.
Before you task your engineers with developing an SSO solution for your SaaS product, you need to confirm that they have a solid grasp of the SAML protocol and SSO authentication. If they are new to the concept, they have to go through quite a lot of research and learning before they can accurately set it up.
You cannot risk getting it wrong when it comes to authentication, as it poses a major security concern. So, your tech team would also need to learn how to mitigate risks characteristic of SSO and SAML implementation. Even if your developers could learn SSO, you are the one to consider if doing so would be the best use of their time or if you could use their skills for other tasks.
The age of your SaaS firm and the strength of your engineering team can help you answer this question. It’s sensible to go for buying an external SSO solution instead of building it in-house when your company is in its early years.
It’s so because there are always opportunity costs associated with software development. When you pull out a few members of your core product team to build SSO software from scratch, you slow down the production process of the product, which is the primary source of your revenue. Can you really afford to have your developers working on SSO creation instead of your core product?
Configuring SSO with your application is not a one-time thing. Your team needs to integrate multiple identity providers (IdPs) with your application for customers with varied IdPs to use. What makes it so challenging is that for each IdP, your engineers need to build a whole new SAML flow, and on top of that, different IdPs handle the SAML flow differently.
Even with your engineering team working full-time, it could take months to configure enough IdPs so as to provide the SSO feature to the majority of your potential customers. On the contrary, buying a third-party SSO solution and integrating it with your SaaS application can save you this hassle. Many SSO platforms are available in the market, which require little to no coding expertise to integrate them with your app.
Although authentication has become synonymous with the digital world, only a few people actually understand the nitty-gritty of building an SSO solution. That brings us to a crucial question – will your in-house SSO-building team get the necessary support when it gets stuck? The fact is that even in the online developer community, there’s a very low percentage of support available when it comes to SSO & SAML creation and troubleshooting.
If your answer to any of the above questions is NO, you may not be ready to build an SSO solution on your own. It may be best if you go for the “buy” option to add an authentication layer to your SaaS product.
