For any business dealing in any niche, cost-price, etc are the most discussed and looked after synonyms. And why not? Most often or not, cost either works as the deal maker or the deal breaker when it comes to decision-making. Need I say everybody is trying to optimize this factor as much as possible? But many times, in order to reduce this factor, people end up making wrong decisions resulting in failure in the original quest.
For example, with the hike in cases of data breaches, the implementation of two-factor authentication is at its peak. If you are dealing with sensitive customer data, you also would have either implemented this solution or are going to implement it very soon. And obviously, the idea of building two-factor authentication on your own, must have crossed your mind more than once. After all, it will reduce costs (or it seems so), you would have full control over your data and it is exciting, right? So lets do it!
Well, hold back your horses! If you do some analysis, building this 2FA on your own is not that wise, if you look at other factors like prior investment, after effects, etc. Dont worry, well soon dive into the particulars. This article, in short, will highlight the major pitfalls of developing a two-factor authentication solution in-house along with the advantages of buying it.
Things needed to build 2FA on your own
1. Developers
So, the first thing you are going to need is a team of experts to build your two-factor solution and hey, engineers dont come cheap! The average cost of hiring an engineer in USA is around 80,778 USD a year. Now lets say, you already have a team working for you, but if they will start working on the 2FA building process, who is going to focus on the core work? After all, it doesnt make much sense to indulge your skilled developers (specialized in application logic) in researching, understanding and then implementing codes (especially security related) for 2FA.
2. Servers
Now lets say, you have no shortage of money and you have hired the best team, you will still need powerful servers that can handle thousands of OTP requests without affecting performance and do I even need to mention, servers dont come cheap either?
Along with that, if you are using the most common SMS based 2FA, you will have to make sure that you are able to deliver this OTP to your global audience which means the need of an SMS provider that offers excellent global coverage. Dont forget the additional failover logics like the user changing phone number or the stolen phones or text-to-voice capabilities if the user cant access SMS at that time.
Re-thinking your idea of developing your own two-factor authentication solution? But wait, here is more!
3. Time
So you have the best team, you have stuff, still, it would take a lot of time to build the solution. Not to mention, the increasing competition in every field. Technology is a racing horse. So by the time, you complete the process of building 2FA from the scratch, chances are your data has already been hacked. And this is just like scratching the surface. We all know the jungle starts getting thicker when it actually starts getting developed. Wouldnt it be better to buy a solution that is just a few clicks away?
4. Security
Building 2FA on your own means you have to heavily involve in cryptography. From the generation of OTP, to validating it, it is a whole hornets nest of work. Also, writing cryptographic functions without expertise is a really bad idea which brings me to my next point. Do you know poorly designed two-factor authentication solutions can be easily circumvented by resetting 2FA process? So, if you want to stay safe, you need to use the latest push notification type 2FA which is another headache. There is more to it. You need to be sure the process is quick, the data is encrypted and what not, in order to keep it secure and bug-free. Moreover, 2FA is becoming increasingly popular with each passing day which means adoption of new technologies and enhancements. You miss them and you are gone!
So, How buying Two-Factor Authentication helps?
Now that I have clearly mentioned the investments and risks involved in building 2FA in-house, going for the cloud-based two-factor authentication solution makes much sense, doesnt it? For beginners, buying might seem like an expensive approach but with reasons mentioned above, building this solution on your own is a lot more expensive, complex and risky.
Going for a cloud-based solution will eliminate the complexity and efforts required. All that is required is to find out a solution which is balanced. The solution must be easy to integrate into your app logic thereby providing you full control over customer experience. The ideal 2FA solution should minimize the impact of long-term maintenance and yet remain updated with latest security features.
The major reason behind going for buying approach is the huge load off from your shoulders. You dont need a dedicated team of engineers, you are no longer required to take care of maintenance, no more worrying about scaling up because it will happen over demand. All that you need to do is to pay just like you do for your satellite TV. And the prices are also not that much if you notice the competition between cloud vendors. So in nutshell, you get the solution at an affordable range, minus the problems and you have all your time to grow your business.
