Today, more and more companies are having to assess the need to modernise their identity management solutions. The temptation to build your own solution with open source tools can be great – especially when the first use cases seem simple. But is this really the most cost-effective and secure way forward?
In this blog, Junnu Danhammer, Sales Manager at Trivore, shares his insights on why building identity management yourself can lead to unexpected challenges and why a turnkey solution like Trivore ID is often a better strategic and financial choice for organisations.
Why is “do it yourself” attractive?
I can easily understand the attraction of building your own solution. Open source tools, such as Keycloak, provide a good basis for identity management, and you can get started quickly. In particular, the seemingly free starting point – no licence fees for an open source platform – is an added attraction. In addition, many organisations have their own development expertise, so the idea of a customised solution seems natural.
However, this freebie is often an illusion. Costs start to rise rapidly when additional features, integrations, and maintenance are required. What started as a “free” project can end up costing many times more than the price of the finished product.
One of the main reasons for this is that Identity Management is like an iceberg – there is much more under the surface than meets the eye.
The real challenges of identity management
In our experience, organisations typically face the following challenges when building their own solution:
- Growing needs: as the project progresses, new needs will constantly arise. Strong authentication, Suomi.fi integration, federated identities, attribute enrichment – the list is growing rapidly.
- Hidden and ongoing costs: the true costs of internal development are difficult to estimate. Maintenance, upgrades, security, and documentation require ongoing resources. Although the initial investment may seem small, the total cost is typically significantly higher than estimated.
- Staff dependency: a self-built solution creates a critical dependency on key staff. What happens if the developer who built the system changes jobs?
- Ensuring regulatory compliance: the GDPR, NIS2, and many other regulations set strict requirements for identity management. Meeting these requirements necessitates continuous monitoring and development, and not all organisations have the skills, time, and resources to learn the regulations.
Why is an off-the-shelf product often a more sensible choice?
Choosing a finished product, such as Trivore ID, is not just a technological decision – it is a strategic choice that frees up an organisation’s resources for its core activities and can withstand growth and change. The right finished product can offer a number of significant benefits:
Cost-effectiveness in the long term
- No unexpected development costs
- Predictable maintenance costs
- Quick deployment saves time and money
- Tested in environments with millions of users
Reliability and security
- Continuous development and updates
- Strong support for standards and integrations
- Automatic regulatory compliance
- Availability at Carrier grade level
Flexibility and scalability
- Easy to expand as needs grow
- Ready-made integrations with the most common systems
- Support for complex use cases
- Possibility of customisation according to your needs
Focus on your core business
“Is developing identity management our core business?” is a question every organisation should ask itself.
Identity management is a critical part of digital infrastructure, but for organisations it’s seldom worth building it themselves. Even if an organisation has skilled developers, they rarely have the experience of the dozens or hundreds of identity management implementations that specialist experts have. A specialist identity management partner brings invaluable experience in solving different challenges and applying best practices.
Just as few companies build their own financial management system, identity management is usually best acquired as a ready-made product.
By choosing a ready-made product, you can focus on what matters most to your organisation – growing your business and serving your customers.
What are the benefits of Trivore ID?
Trivore ID is a fully domestic product, trusted by a large number of companies and public authorities. With over 5 million identities already managed and more than 100 million event messages transmitted per month, the product is therefore shown to work and scale under demanding conditions.
The key advantages of Trivore ID over Open Source solutions are:
- Easy and guaranteed strong authentication
- Lower life cycle costs in most cases
- Customisation of user communication
- Branding the interface to look like your organisation
- Large set of tested interfaces – Trivore ID currently offers more than 300 ready-made interfaces
- Continuous development and maintenance alongside effective technical support
How to proceed?
If your organisation is considering identity management renewal, it is worth looking at the options available before starting your own development work. Finnish Trivore ID offers a cost-effective and secure solution that scales to your organisation’s needs.
Many are pleasantly surprised by the cost of the finished product – the purchase price of a solution like Trivore ID is often lower than expected. Combine this with rapid deployment and low maintenance costs, and the total cost of ownership (TCO) is typically significantly lower than the cost of the self-made solution.
We are happy to help you identify your organisation’s needs and find the right solution. Contact us to discuss further.
Junnu Danhammer
Trivore Sales Manager
Tel. 044 313 0838
junnu.danhammer@trivore.fi