When (and How) to Choose Keycloak — and Why to Partner with Midships

Keycloak is a robust, open-source Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution. Enterprises value it for standards compliance, cost advantages, and flexibility. However, running Keycloak at scale with high availability, predictable upgrades, and enterprise-grade user journeys requires more than the default distribution.

Midships bridges that gap with our Keycloak Accelerator, which delivers:

• Zero-downtime deployment and operations

• Autoscaling and high-availability clustering

• Device management out-of-the-box

• API-first authentication flows — a unique capability that removes any dependency on the Keycloak UI, giving enterprises full freedom to own and design their user experience.

• Templated authenticators and journeys (passwordless, silent device login, digital signing, and more)

• Environment-based licensing and fully managed services

Together, these enhancements enable enterprises to run Keycloak like a commercial SaaS product — predictable, resilient, and feature-rich — while retaining the control and cost benefits of open source.

1. Why Keycloak Appeals to Enterprises

• Standards-first: Supports OIDC, OAuth2, SAML, LDAP/AD federation, WebAuthn, and passkeys.

• Lower licensing costs: The open-source core is free. Enterprise editions such as Red Hat SSO or Keycloak on OpenShift are licensed on a CPU basis.

• Composable architecture: Designed to work in ecosystems where policy enforcement, fraud detection, and analytics are externalized from the IdP.

• Freedom to customize: Extensible and flexible, Keycloak avoids vendor lock-in and gives organizations direct control.

That said, default Keycloak deployments often face challenges around high availability, upgrades, multi-cluster reliability, and advanced features like device lifecycle management.

2. Midships Keycloak Accelerator: From Open Source to Enterprise-Ready

Our accelerator is designed to close these enterprise gaps.

High Availability and Scale

• Autoscaling clusters with Infinispan caching, JGroups discovery, and multi-region topologies.

• Zero-downtime upgrades using blue/green and canary strategies.

• Predictable failover and disaster recovery runbooks built in.

Device Management Out-of-the-Box

• Integrated device binding and management — enabling silent device login, strong re-entry, and lifecycle handling.

• Users can manage trusted devices seamlessly through their self-service portal.

API-First Journeys

• Extended Keycloak capabilities so any authentication flow can be invoked via APIs, decoupling authentication from Keycloak’s default UI.

• Enables headless IAM: your apps control the UX, while Keycloak + Midships supply the flows.

Templated Authenticators and Journeys

Pre-built libraries accelerate the delivery of common and advanced journeys, including:

• Passwordless authentication (WebAuthn/FIDO2)

• Step-up MFA

• Digital transaction signing

• Recovery and re-verification

• Silent device login

Everything-as-Code

• Restructured Keycloak configuration JSONs to be developer- and GitOps-friendly.

• Full CI/CD pipelines with automated rollback and audit-ready change management.

Commercial Model

• Enterprise Keycloak: We always recommend the Enterprise version (such as Red Hat SSO or Keycloak on OpenShift) as it includes regular application fixes and patches to address known CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), ensuring security and compliance at scale.

• Midships Accelerators: Licensed per environment, per year for predictable TCO. Importantly, Midships does not charge per identity — unlike many commercial providers — giving enterprises cost predictability as user volumes grow.

• Managed Service Option: 24/7 operations, upgrades, monitoring, and SLO-backed reliability.

3. What Keycloak Doesn’t Do — and Why That’s Fine

• Policy evaluation: Keycloak does not embed advanced policy engines. In modern architectures, however, policy is externalized (e.g., OPA or API gateway enforcement). This keeps the IdP lightweight and focused.

• Advanced identity features: Capabilities like behavioral biometrics, distributed credentials, or eKYC are not native to Keycloak but can be integrated using best-of-breed specialist tools. Midships provides integration patterns and advisory for customers who require these features.

4. The Midships Advantage

By combining enterprise Keycloak licensing with Midships Accelerators, customers benefit from:

• A production-ready Keycloak deployment in weeks, not months.

• Zero-downtime, autoscaling HA operations.

• Device management out-of-the-box and API-first journeys.

• A library of advanced authenticators and self-service flows.

• Predictable environment-based licensing with the option of a fully managed service.

5. Key Takeaway for Enterprises

Keycloak can absolutely serve as a modern Identity Provider — if deployed with the right patterns and operational discipline. Midships makes this possible:

• We operationalize Keycloak to enterprise standards.

• We extend it with APIs, templates, and device management.

• We offer commercial support and managed services, eliminating operational risk for customers.

For organizations that want the flexibility and cost efficiency of Keycloak with the reliability and assurance of a commercial platform, Midships is the partner that makes it real.

Writer’s Overview

Ajit Gupta – Co-Founder & CEO, Midships

Ajit leads Midships Group’s transition from a specialist identity consultancy to a portfolio of autonomous, AI-native business units. He focuses on long-term business relevance through platform thinking, customer outcomes, and scalable operating models.

Short bio: Ajit is a strategic founder with deep expertise in IAM, platform delivery, and AI services, driving Midships’ expansion across Asia, the Middle East, and beyond.

📧 ajit@midships.io

🔗 LinkedIn: Ajit Gupta