Open Standards & Interoperability

Why Open Standards Matter

The collaboration software market has historically rewarded lock-in. Proprietary protocols, closed file formats, and walled-garden ecosystems make it difficult and expensive for organisations to switch providers or integrate tools. This serves the vendor’s retention metrics. It does not serve the customer’s interests.

Mandraki is built on open, peer-reviewed standards. This is not an incidental technical choice — it is a deliberate commitment to interoperability, auditability, and customer freedom.

The Standards Behind Mandraki

WebRTC (W3C / IETF)

WebRTC is the open standard for real-time communication in web browsers. It provides the underlying protocols for video, audio, and data transmission without requiring plugins or proprietary clients.

Mandraki uses WebRTC for all real-time media. This means:

• Browser-native. Users join calls directly in their web browser. No desktop application is required, though one may be provided for convenience.
• Interoperable transport. The underlying media protocols (SRTP, ICE, DTLS) are standardised and implemented by every major browser engine.
• No proprietary codec lock-in. Mandraki uses standard codecs (VP8, VP9, Opus) that are royalty-free and widely supported.

MLS — Messaging Layer Security (RFC 9420)

MLS is the IETF standard for scalable, secure group messaging. It provides group key agreement with forward secrecy and post-compromise security, properties that older protocols like Signal’s sender-keys approach struggle to deliver at scale.

Mandraki uses MLS for end-to-end encrypted messaging. Adopting an open, standardised protocol means:

• Auditable cryptography. The protocol has been formally analysed and peer-reviewed by the academic and security community.
• No proprietary key exchange. The key agreement mechanism is standard, not a custom construction that requires trusting a single vendor’s cryptographic competence.
• Future interoperability. As other platforms adopt MLS, the potential for cross-platform encrypted messaging increases. Mandraki is positioned to participate in that ecosystem.

SFrame — Secure Frame (RFC 9605)

SFrame is the IETF standard for encrypting individual media frames in real-time communications. It is designed specifically for use with SFU architectures, where the server routes encrypted media without decoding it.

Mandraki uses SFrame for end-to-end encrypted video and audio calls. The standard ensures:

• Compatibility with SFU routing. The SFU can forward encrypted frames to the correct recipients without needing access to the media content.
• Per-frame encryption. Each video or audio frame is independently encrypted, providing fine-grained security.
• Standard key management. SFrame integrates with MLS for key distribution, creating a unified encryption architecture across messaging and media.

SCIM 2.0 (RFC 7644)

The System for Cross-domain Identity Management standard enables automated user provisioning and deprovisioning. Mandraki’s SCIM endpoint allows identity providers to synchronise user accounts automatically, ensuring that employee lifecycle events (joining, role changes, departures) are reflected in Mandraki without manual intervention.

SAML 2.0 and OpenID Connect

Mandraki supports both SAML 2.0 and OIDC for single sign-on, ensuring compatibility with virtually any enterprise identity provider. These are mature, widely-deployed standards with well-understood security properties.

What Open Standards Mean for Customers

No vendor lock-in. Your data is stored in standard formats. Your communications use standard protocols. If you decide to leave Mandraki, your data comes with you in formats that other systems can consume.

Auditability. Open protocols can be independently reviewed by your security team, third-party auditors, or the broader security community. You do not need to trust a vendor’s proprietary claims about their encryption — you can verify the implementation against the published standard.

Integration. Standard protocols make it straightforward to integrate Mandraki with your existing infrastructure: identity providers, compliance tools, archival systems, and custom workflows.

Longevity. Open standards outlive individual vendors. Investing in a platform built on standards reduces the risk that your collaboration infrastructure becomes orphaned if a vendor changes direction, is acquired, or ceases operations.

Beyond Protocol Compliance

Mandraki does not merely use open standards as a technical substrate while building proprietary layers on top. The commitment to openness extends to data formats, API design, and export capabilities. REST APIs follow standard conventions. Data exports use standard formats. Integration patterns follow established enterprise conventions.

Openness is not a feature. It is a design principle that shapes every technical decision.