Understanding SAML SSO, the basics from the solution provider's side

This article follows my first article in which I explain the basics of SAML from the users' side. If you haven't read that one already I would recommend reading that one first here. In this article, we are going to take a look at what SAML authentication and setup look like from the solution providers' perspective.

If you are a B2B solutions provider and you plan to have enterprise customers they will likely ask that your product supports SAML SSO. This is because the customer will already be using an identity provider (IdP) to manage user access and security to their services. Anything outside this will be a risk and not fit into their user's workflows.

Most larger solution providers have already invested a lot of time and money into building SAML integrations with IdP providers but this leaves smaller competitors with less time and resources at a disadvantage as they often haven't been able to prioritize enterprise security features over the core product build.

The main reason why smaller companies don’t implement SAML as part of the standard build is that it traditionally takes a long time as they have to build a custom integration with each IdP provider their customers use. Well, this is now an old issue because we have created Ory (formerly BoxyHQ) which allows you to connect to our free product with one single integration that then connects to all the IdPs for you! Let's take a look at what the integrations with and without Ory look like first.

In the diagram above we can see what it looks like when you build a custom SAML integration with each IdP. As you can see for each IdP you have to connect all the instances of your product and build a unique integration. This can take months and take the focus away from your team building your core product. We believe that enterprise readiness should be accessible and easy for businesses of all sizes so we built Ory. Let's see what that looks like.

As you can see from the image above with Ory you only have to connect your product with a straightforward integration and then we manage and connect you to all the IdPs! It is that simple and you can deploy SAML SSO for your clients in as little as 8 days. We are also open source and free so you don't need to worry about big maintenance bills, we will even offer you custom support during the integration.

If you are interested in becoming enterprise-ready without the hassle then let's chat!