4 ms·

That makes some sense, but that hardly sounds like a $10b+ value proposition, right?

faeriechangling 3y ago
The switching costs are immense because you often need to weave their identity stack into all the software you write to allow for single sign on. These companies can milk their customers dry because their customers allow these providers to hold a gun to their head. You can sell a company like this to Broadcom and make megabucks as companies take 5 years to switch away.
- toomuchtodo 3y ago
  We need the non profit idp equivalent of Lets Encrypt for this function. Otherwise, the cycle continues (accumulate customers, sell out, shareholders squeeze the customer base, customers churn to new orgs, etc).
  - mooreds 3y ago
    Isn't this by default what governments are doing? The USA has login.gov, etc. Or do you want to see this as a privately funded enterprise?
  - afandian 3y ago
    I’m still sad that Mozilla killed Persona. It had a lot of promise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Persona https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Persona
  - TheNewsIsHere 3y ago
    The best bet for that right now is something like Keycloak. There are a multitude of challenges in running any non-profit, but one that provides higher-touch services like an IdP to other businesses has some particular challenges. With something like Let’s Encrypt, there exists a single set of standards being implemented, and if you don’t like those standards and the way they’re implemented you walk away. With an IdP, there is a huge amount of ongoing support you have to provide to users. “Why is the ‘aud’ attribute not making it through to this one application?” “Why did my directory sync suddenly stop working and the logs are blank?” and so on. You would end up effectively needing to run a privately funded foundation, and that would require the political desire within businesses to fund and operate it.
  - yaleman 3y ago
    Run your own Kanidm instance for free ^_^
emodendroket 3y ago
Having dipped my toe in some of this stuff I think it absolutely sounds like a ten-billion dollar proposition to offer a turnkey solution to the problem.
- mooreds 3y ago
  That's why there are dozens of startups in the auth space. Turnkey is harder than you think, though, because authentication, while undifferentiated in general, does get tied up in business logic. A multi-tenant B2C SaaS has different needs than B2B on-prem deployed software, to name just two use cases. Source: I work for FusionAuth, an auth provider.

The switching costs are immense because you often need to weave their identity stack into all the software you write to allow for single sign on. These companies can milk their customers dry because their customers allow these providers to hold a gun to their head. You can sell a company like this to Broadcom and make megabucks as companies take 5 years to switch away.

toomuchtodo 3y ago
We need the non profit idp equivalent of Lets Encrypt for this function. Otherwise, the cycle continues (accumulate customers, sell out, shareholders squeeze the customer base, customers churn to new orgs, etc).
- mooreds 3y ago
  Isn't this by default what governments are doing? The USA has login.gov, etc. Or do you want to see this as a privately funded enterprise?
- afandian 3y ago
  I’m still sad that Mozilla killed Persona. It had a lot of promise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Persona https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Persona
- TheNewsIsHere 3y ago
  The best bet for that right now is something like Keycloak. There are a multitude of challenges in running any non-profit, but one that provides higher-touch services like an IdP to other businesses has some particular challenges. With something like Let’s Encrypt, there exists a single set of standards being implemented, and if you don’t like those standards and the way they’re implemented you walk away. With an IdP, there is a huge amount of ongoing support you have to provide to users. “Why is the ‘aud’ attribute not making it through to this one application?” “Why did my directory sync suddenly stop working and the logs are blank?” and so on. You would end up effectively needing to run a privately funded foundation, and that would require the political desire within businesses to fund and operate it.
- yaleman 3y ago
  Run your own Kanidm instance for free ^_^

emodendroket 3y ago

Having dipped my toe in some of this stuff I think it absolutely sounds like a ten-billion dollar proposition to offer a turnkey solution to the problem.

mooreds 3y ago
That's why there are dozens of startups in the auth space. Turnkey is harder than you think, though, because authentication, while undifferentiated in general, does get tied up in business logic. A multi-tenant B2C SaaS has different needs than B2B on-prem deployed software, to name just two use cases. Source: I work for FusionAuth, an auth provider.