Moving upmarket is usually described as a go-to-market decision. It arrives as an engineering one: a list of requirements attached to a contract, with a date.
This piece walks through how we think about it at Paycux, what we have changed our minds about, and where the sharp edges are.
The allure of open source: Transparency and control
The allure of open source: Transparency and control is where this gets concrete. The cost is not the first integration; it is the long tail. Providers disagree in small ways, certificates expire, tenants move, and each one becomes something you own indefinitely.
Price the work honestly. A quarter spent building identity plumbing is a quarter not spent on the product the customer actually chose you for, and that trade should be made deliberately rather than by default.
The maintenance trap: When “free” isn’t free
Consider the maintenance trap: when “free” isn’t free. Price the work honestly. A quarter spent building identity plumbing is a quarter not spent on the product the customer actually chose you for, and that trade should be made deliberately rather than by default.
The requirements look arbitrary until you map each one to a failure the buyer has already lived through. Single sign-on exists because someone left and kept access. Provisioning exists because a contractor's account outlived their contract.
- Map each requirement to the failure it prevents
- Count the long tail, not the first integration
- Decide who owns the plumbing for the next three years
- Make the buy-versus-build trade explicitly
Hosting and scaling: You are the cloud provider now
Hosting and scaling: You are the cloud provider now deserves its own treatment. The cost is not the first integration; it is the long tail. Providers disagree in small ways, certificates expire, tenants move, and each one becomes something you own indefinitely.
The cost is not the first integration; it is the long tail. Providers disagree in small ways, certificates expire, tenants move, and each one becomes something you own indefinitely.
Security patching: A race against zero-days
Security patching: A race against zero-days deserves its own treatment. Price the work honestly. A quarter spent building identity plumbing is a quarter not spent on the product the customer actually chose you for, and that trade should be made deliberately rather than by default.
The cost is not the first integration; it is the long tail. Providers disagree in small ways, certificates expire, tenants move, and each one becomes something you own indefinitely.
Price the work honestly.
Integration complexity: You don’t just “add SAML”
That brings us to integration complexity: you don’t just “add saml”. The cost is not the first integration; it is the long tail. Providers disagree in small ways, certificates expire, tenants move, and each one becomes something you own indefinitely.
Price the work honestly. A quarter spent building identity plumbing is a quarter not spent on the product the customer actually chose you for, and that trade should be made deliberately rather than by default.
Compliance and risk: You’re now the vendor of record
Compliance and risk: You’re now the vendor of record deserves its own treatment. The cost is not the first integration; it is the long tail. Providers disagree in small ways, certificates expire, tenants move, and each one becomes something you own indefinitely.
The requirements look arbitrary until you map each one to a failure the buyer has already lived through. Single sign-on exists because someone left and kept access. Provisioning exists because a contractor's account outlived their contract.
The operational reality
The operational reality deserves its own treatment. The cost is not the first integration; it is the long tail. Providers disagree in small ways, certificates expire, tenants move, and each one becomes something you own indefinitely.
Price the work honestly. A quarter spent building identity plumbing is a quarter not spent on the product the customer actually chose you for, and that trade should be made deliberately rather than by default.
Where this leaves us
None of this is exotic. It is the ordinary discipline of deciding what you own, writing down what you assume, and making the failures loud enough to notice.
If you are working through the same problem and want to compare notes, the docs cover the mechanics and the console shows the behaviour on your own data.
Everything here, already built
Sign-in, enterprise SSO, directory provisioning, roles and an audit trail behind one API. Start with the quickstart and have a working sign-in this afternoon.