Building Customizable SaaS-Native CIAM Solutions | Amir Jaron, VP R&D at Frontegg

Does developing enterprise-grade CIAM solutions need to be an uphill battle? Also, how do you ensure security, scalability and usability?

In this exclusive interview, Amir Jaron, VP R&D at Frontegg, shares how SaaS businesses can engineer enterprise-grade CIAM systems without hassle and deliver identity experiences right from day one.

Please share key highlights from your background in security product development and pivotal moments as VP R&D at Frontegg.

Prior to Frontegg, I spent nearly a decade at Check Point, where I had the opportunity to grow from a hands-on software developer into a group manager leading multiple teams across cloud, web and security management. Each step of the way, I was deeply involved in building and scaling security platforms used by thousands of customers worldwide.

At Frontegg, I lead our R&D organization as VP of R&D. We’re building a platform that enables modern applications to embed powerful customer identity and access management (CIAM) capabilities with minimal effort, spanning authentication, authorization, session management and more.

Key moments in this journey include:

• Security at the Core of CIAM: We’ve embedded risk assessment and adaptive access into our login and session flows through a dozen security engines. It empowers customers to detect anomalies in real time and enforce fine-grained policies based on context (location, behavior, device signals, etc.).
• Scalable Authorization Architecture: We developed a multi-tenant RBAC and ABAC engine with intuitive admin controls, which our customers can customize and extend. This enables dynamic access control that evolves with business complexity.
• DevOps Maturity and Secure Engineering Culture: We are strong adopters of GitOps, progressive delivery and a full observability stack. This is critical to meeting uptime and compliance expectations. We’ve built a security-first culture where threat modeling, dependency scanning and incident readiness are part of the development DNA.
• Strategic Expansion into AI: Recently, we’ve been expanding Frontegg into new domains, including enabling AI agents to integrate secure, compliant identity workflows. It’s exciting to bring our security roots into the future of how people and machines authenticate and interact.

Why should B2B SaaS businesses opt for Frontegg’s unified authentication, authorization and user management over other CIAM solutions?

• SaaS-native from the Ground Up

Unlike legacy CIAM providers who refactored enterprise IAM systems for external users, Frontegg was designed for the unique needs of SaaS businesses:

1. Multi-tenant architecture out of the box
2. Tenant-aware RBAC and ABAC models
3. Easy tenant provisioning and user onboarding workflows
4. Fully embeddable and customizable self-service portals

SaaS companies can integrate Frontegg in days, not months, and deliver enterprise-ready identity experiences from day one.

• Unified Platform: Auth, Access & Beyond

Frontegg brings authentication, authorization, user management, sessions, audit logs, login activity tracking and MFA under one unified platform with a single API surface and consistent UI/UX components.

This eliminates the need to cobble together multiple tools or build custom infrastructure to bridge feature gaps.

• Enterprise Features, Consumer-like Experience

We enable startups and scale-ups to offer enterprise-grade identity features to their customers, including:

1. SSO with any IdP (SAML, OIDC, SCIM)
2. Granular access controls with organization-aware roles
3. Self-serve team management, passwordless login and invite flows
4. Entitlements and policy-based access governance
5. Advanced enterprise capabilities like tenant hierarchies

These features are plug-and-play, yet fully customizable. So, your app feels like your app, not someone else’s identity product.

• Built-in Security and Compliance

Security is core to everything we build. Frontegg provides:

1. Inline risk assessment and a dozen different security engines, including adaptive challenge capabilities
2. Session management and revocation controls
3. Audit trails and compliance-ready logging
4. SOC 2, ISO 27001 and GDPR support

You get a modern security posture by default, without needing a dedicated security team to stitch it together.

• Developer Velocity and Flexibility

Our SDKs, REST APIs and webhooks are designed for rapid integration without black-box abstractions. You can use us headless or plug in our pre-built UI components to get started instantly.

We also integrate easily into modern stacks: React, Next.js, Node.js, Go, Kubernetes, serverless, etc.

In terms of usability, how does Frontegg effectively cater to technical and non-technical stakeholders?

Frontegg is designed to empower both developers and business users by providing the right interface and level of control for each persona.

• For Developers: Frontegg offers modular SDKs, robust APIs and optional pre-built UI components. It integrates seamlessly into modern stacks, supports headless implementation and gives full control over auth flows, roles and tenant-aware permissions. This allows engineering teams to ship faster without compromising on flexibility or security.
• For Non-technical Users: Through a powerful no-code admin portal, product managers, security teams and customer admins can manage users, configure login methods, adjust roles & policies and view audit logs, all without writing a single line of code.

Tell us about Frontegg.ai, Frontegg’s latest launch. How does it enable developers to build enterprise-grade AI agents?

• Multi-tenant Identity Management with Built-in Security and Context Awareness

Frontegg.ai enables seamless onboarding of users and organizations directly within your AI agent’s interface. This includes multi-tenant authentication, secure user identification and organization onboarding, all powered by Frontegg’s hosted flows and managed user pools. Developers gain access to the full security suite of the Frontegg platform, including adaptive MFA, role-based access control (RBAC), session governance and audit logging. This ensures that every user interaction is secure, compliant and scalable from day one.

Additionally, Frontegg.ai provides the AI agent with rich user & identity context, enabling it to make informed decisions based on user roles, permissions and organizational affiliations. This context-aware approach ensures that the agent operates with the appropriate level of access and personalization for each user. 

• Secure Third-party App Integrations

Frontegg.ai simplifies the integration of third-party tools like Slack, Google Calendar, Jira and HubSpot by managing the entire OAuth flow on your behalf. It supports both user-level (on-behalf-of) and app-level (organization-wide) integrations, securely handling token storage, consent flows and automatic token refreshes. This eliminates the need for developers to manage sensitive credentials or complex authorization logic, allowing AI agents to interact with external services securely and efficiently.

How do Frontegg’s customizable interfaces and authentication flows improve customers’ time-to-market?

Frontegg’s customizable interfaces and authentication flows significantly accelerate customers’ time-to-market by providing pre-built, yet highly adaptable, components that integrate seamlessly into applications. These components can be tailored to match specific branding and user experience requirements, reducing the need for extensive development work. 

Additionally, Frontegg’s AI-generated Flows feature allows both developers and non-developers to create complex identity workflows using natural language commands. This capability simplifies the orchestration of authentication processes, enabling rapid deployment and adjustments without deep technical expertise.

By leveraging these customizable tools, businesses can implement secure, user-friendly authentication systems quickly, allowing them to focus on core product development and reduce time-to-market.

How do you align your R&D strategy with the diverse needs of developers, security teams and business leaders?

We evaluate every feature and product development initiative through these three lenses:

• Developer Experience: We evaluate how a feature will streamline integration, enhance usability and reduce development time.
• Security and Compliance: We consider the feature's ability to strengthen security measures, ensure compliance with regulations and protect user data.
• Business Leader Enablement: We analyze how the feature will empower business leaders by providing tools for user management, access control and insights into user behavior, facilitating better decision-making and operational efficiency.

By systematically examining each task through these lenses, we prioritize initiatives that offer balanced benefits. Frontegg is unique because we reduce the burden on developers and give other business stakeholders hands-on control over their respective slices of CIAM.

What is the future of SaaS identity management, and how is Frontegg positioned to address it?

The future of SaaS identity management is being shaped by several key trends:

• Zero Trust Security Models: Organizations are increasingly adopting Zero Trust architectures, which operate on the principle of “never trust, always verify.” This approach ensures that every access request is thoroughly authenticated, authorized and encrypted, regardless of its origin.
• AI-driven Identity Management: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are becoming integral to identity management. These technologies enable real-time threat detection, adaptive authentication and automated policy enforcement, enhancing security and user experience.
• Unified Access Management (UAM): The shift towards Unified Access Management allows enterprises to manage digital identities and provide secure access across multiple devices and applications from a single platform. This evolution enhances productivity and security in increasingly complex IT environments.
• Integration of Non-human Identities: With the proliferation of AI agents and automated systems, managing non-human identities has become crucial. Ensuring secure authentication and authorization for these entities is essential to maintain system integrity.

Frontegg is strategically positioned to meet these emerging challenges in SaaS identity management:

• Zero Trust Implementation: Frontegg’s platform supports Zero Trust principles by providing robust authentication mechanisms, including adaptive multi-factor authentication (MFA) and role-based access control (RBAC), ensuring that access is granted based on verified identities and contextual factors.
• AI-enhanced Security: By integrating AI capabilities, Frontegg enhances threat detection and response, allowing for real-time monitoring and adaptive security measures that evolve with emerging threats.
• Unified Access Management: Frontegg offers a comprehensive UAM solution that simplifies identity management across diverse applications and devices, streamlining administrative processes and improving security posture.
• Support for Non-human Identities: Recognizing the rise of AI agents, Frontegg provides tools to manage and secure non-human identities, ensuring that automated systems operate within defined security parameters.

By aligning its offerings with these key trends, Frontegg empowers organizations to navigate the evolving landscape of SaaS identity management with confidence and agility.