Choosing a Single Sign-on Solution

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Date Posted: 19 May 2020; •
Author: Andrew Clymer; •
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minute read

Companies with multiple systems that each require users to login and manage different accounts have an increased cost of ownership.

How often have you returned to a website you haven't used in over three months and can't remember the account details?

Applications developed to use a single sign-on (SSO) solution for login let users have only one account for all their applications, and only have to login once per day, streamlining their day.

There are plenty of off the shelf SSO solutions, but how many of them provide a tight fit into your organisation, often resulting in inevitable compromises?

Software as a Service

Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions often have low entry-level costs to tempt you in. Once established, the prices often rocket disproportionately to your business growth.

Single sign-on is a critical component in your IT system; you get zero application functionality if users can't login. If the SaaS solution gets turned off, what is your disaster recovery plan?

Build It Yourself

Alternatively, you can build it yourself and develop a custom SSO solution. This can be done by your in-house developers. But it often means taking them off revenue-generating projects and the skill set required to develop a reliable SSO solution can be very specialised. Learning and obtaining these specialist skills takes time and effort and need constant updating. In our experience, once developed, these systems go through very little change,  which results in a low return on your investment.

Outsourcing to Experts

Outsourcing the development of an integrated SSO solution to a team of expert developers who perform this task daily is worth considering.

Having a team of SSO experts develop a solution gives you confidence that the security is solid; no one wants the stress of a data breach. You can combine the benefits of building SSO yourself with outsourcing to an expert team to deliver the following:

One-off cost for the solution, with no additional costs as the business grows
Works how your organisation wants
Gain complete ownership of a critical component

Rock Solid Knowledge has over five years of experience in developing SSO solutions. We typically deliver a solution customised to your requirements in 3-4 weeks from project commencing, freeing your developers to focus on your core business, giving you confidence that your apps are now secured using the latest identity-based protection.

Find out more about our expert outsourcing services and products for IdentityServer.