Why Multi-Tenancy Application Architecture Matters in 2018

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Myriad benefits of SaaS Multi-Tenant Architecture make it a lucrative option for application development in 2018

Multi-tenancy is an application architecture in which one single instance of the application is used to serve multiple customers. Similar to client-server architecture in which an application runs on a server and it can be accessed by customers from various browsers. Here each customer is a tenant who has the capability to customize some parts of the application according to a requirement like changing the color of the user interface or customizing business rules but at the same time, they are not permitted to make any kind of changes to the source code. Cloud ERP providers like Sage Intacct: Cloud Financial Management Software and NetSuite: Business Management Software make use of Multi-tenancy application architecture approach.

What is Multi-Instance/Cloud Computing?

Multi-instance architecture is of great value to businesses that value control over their systems and are flexible and agile in responding to changing market and evolving business needs. It comparatively requires less time and resources in provider data center.  It suits consumer scale applications as well. Some of the essential characteristics that define multi-instance architecture:

  • On-demand Self-Service
  • Broad network access
  • Resource Pooling
  • Rapid Elasticity
  • Measured Service

It is offered as following service models:

The user does not have access to the underlying infrastructure. Two things that form the basis of any cloud service are Scaling-Out and DevOps.

Is Multi-Tenancy Different From Multi-Instance (Cloud-Based Solutions)?

Multi-Instance V/S Multi-Tenant Architecture

Multi-Instance V/S Multi-Tenant Architecture

Problems Solved by Multi-Tenant Architecture

  • Let’s find out why Multi-Tenant Architecture will matter in 2018:

With a multi-tenant architecture, a number of customers or tenants get served at the same time. It seems to be much more efficient than the old server hosting model, where every customer used to have access to individual servers. Red Hat-type virtualization allows each server to cram fewer customers onto itself than a real multi-tenant service.

Multi-tenant architecture is efficient and can scale up easily. These bring the lower cost for software hosters, vendors and subsequently lower price for customers. One of the very basic examples of multi-tenant architecture was Hotmail, Facebook that went up enveloping tens of millions of customers even before any meaningful revenue was generated.

As virtualization, middleware sharing and Data centers operated by third parties for the benefit of multiple enterprise tenants gain popularity due to minimizing cost and maximizing efficiency, the next generation networks (5G) increasingly make use of technologies like Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV). This possibility of network resource sharing among different tenants and service providers is one of the main benefits of multi-tenant architecture.

It’s easy to build a multi-tenant app as each client gets their own configuration and data. Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL database and tools like apartment gem form the building blocks of a multi-tenant app.

Single-Tenant SaaS vs Multi-Tenant Architecture – Which one is will you prefer?

Talking about the merits and drawbacks of Multi-tenant architecture and single tenant SaaS architecture, former is efficient in terms of IT management, scalable and cost-effective. According to single-tenant architecture, the performance of the application can be increased when the client operates within his own database, and simultaneously increase performance, security, flexibility, and integration.

Single-Tenant vs Multi-Tenant

Selecting between the two depends upon business objectives and requirements. Significant cost savings can be realized with multi-tenant SaaS as all the resources can be pooled together.  Upgrades become seamless due to minimal customer intervention, backups and redundancy of servers are easy as there is no requirement to have unique servers.

Time to Wrap Up

Multi-instance has an upper hand over multi-tenant architecture as latter costs more and requires more development resources, specialized tools, and engineers. It can be called as a potentially less secure environment, has less configuration control and is not customizable as a multi-instance solution. Updates and upgrades are not easy and not within the control and are often forced on customers. It is not easy and sensible to run one company’s operations on same application instance as competitors.

On the other hand, multi-instance architecture suits well where the code is to be migrated to and from cloud to an on-premise solution or amongst cloud hosting providers.

Multi-tenant application architecture is effective enough to achieve any goal in a scalable and sustainable fashion. It helps optimize the use of hardware, software. The customer has to update with every release by making use of tenant management tools. Multi-tenant architecture makes centralized updates and maintenance easy and possible to a significant level of granularity. But all clouds are not created equal.

It’s true that cloud-based multi-tenant SaaS systems run one system that is always up to date and is omnipresent amongst customers. With all this and more, this delivery model is sure to eliminate many of the problems created by the traditional software licensing and upgrade model.

We are ready to go with multi-tenant application architecture, with a few confessions:

  • Multi-Tenancy is for vendors  and not for customers
  • Sharing of resources often leads to performance and data chaos
  • Highly regulated industries will not be able to cope up with multi-tenant security

Multi-tenancy has originated from SaaS and cannot be discounted, generalized, mixed into something or understood as just an interpretation of cloud computing or SaaS. Essentially, SaaS would not have delivered those benefits if it wasn’t multi-tenant.

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About Author
Vipin Jain

Vipin Jain

Vipin Jain is the Co-Founder and CEO at Konstant Infosolutions and is in charge of marketing, project management, administration and R&D at the company. With his marketing background, Vipin Jain has developed and honed the company’s vision, corporate structure & initiatives and its goals, and brought the company into the current era of success.

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