Why choose matrix as enterprise chat?
A small case-study
Context
Company A
Company C
Company B
Old setup
Old setup
- many common projects and collaborations
- stuck on an old Rocket.Chat version
- each company has their own IT-infrastructure
We needed a new chat.
Requirements
Shall allow communication between employees of different companies
Shall enable audio and video conferencing easily, reliably and in good quality
Shall provide an option for do not disturb times
Shall support SSO via SAML, OIDC or LDAP
Should have a good search
Shall ensure confidentiality of messages
Shall have clients for Android, iOS, macOS Windows as well as Web
Solution space
We decided to give matrix a chance...
- cheaper in the long run
→ est. TCO of about 18k vs 30k (Slack) after 5 years with 35 users - no privacy or GDPR risks, because self-hosted on our hardware
- E2EE possible
- extremely scalable
→ both users and federating servers - SSO works really good
- Synapse does not need much maintenance
- Much faster than our old Rocket.Chat
/
Pro
- high initial setup costs
- in-house knowledge about matrix has to be built up
- E2EE is sometimes inconvenient
- not having E2EE is actually an option but a bit flaky
- Some important features are missing in element
- do-not-disturb times
- Status for vacation, busy-times, etc.
/
Con
- Managed rooms
- A bot syncs user groups from Azure AD and LDAP into rooms
- invites, kicks, power-levels
- We really wanted SSO.
If you do not need that and have only a few users, Slack might be cheaper, because you do not need the Slack Business+ plan
Our special-requirements
- your company does not collaborate with other companies
- you do not care that much about privacy and security
- you want it very easy and fast without much pre-knowledge
You do not need if
- your company collaborates a lot with other companies
- you do care about privacy and security or have to fulfill regulations
- you really want SSO and don't want to pay a lot of money for that
You might want if
Things to consider
- Use the federation whitelist
- Use spaces only if necessary, they are complex for users
- Things like a GIF-Picker are more important for users than you might think
- Create a common room for all users of all participating servers to allow easy user-search across federation
- Self-hosting matrix only pays off if you have more than ~30 users → more users = cheaper
- Widgets, Stickers and Integration Managers do not work very well in a closed, self-hosted environment
Any additions or questions?
Valentin Rieß
@valentin:keks.club
MatrixSummit2022 - Why choose matrix as enterprise chat
By vriess
