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Former Member
At SAP TechEd, a number of customers asked me about multi-tenant cloud architecture: What’s it all about? What are its benefits? Is it secure? And what should they look out for when cloud vendors call themselves “multi-tenant-enabled.” They were also interested in knowing how SuccessFactors has architected its cloud solutions – and how our architecture differs from others. So, I thought I’d write a blog that explains multi-tenancy from the perspective of three audiences – software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors, SaaS customers (tenants), and SaaS users (seats on the tenant’s account) – and how SuccessFactors’ multi-tenant architecture is unique.

Let’s start with a useful definition of multi-tenancy. Simply put, multi-tenancy is an architectural model where a single instance of software runs on a SaaS vendor’s servers and serves multiple client organizations (tenants). Multi-tenancy differs from a multi-instance architecture, where separate software instances (or hardware systems) are set up for different client organizations.

For the SaaS vendor, multi-tenancy increases resource utilization by allowing load balancing among tenants. It also reduces operational complexity and cost in managing the software to deliver the service. For example, vendors can easily roll out a software fix to all tenants by patching a single instance instead of many. Similarly, they can back up everyone’s data in one operation by backing up a single instance. The result? Operations costs are lower due to economies of scale and increased opportunities for automation.

For the SaaS customer and user, multi-tenancy is transparent. The customer seems to have its own dedicated instance of the software entirely to itself, while the user just sees the application as a user of any application would.

Faux vs. Real: The True Test for Multi-Tenancy

When it comes to cloud-based architecture, it’s critical to distinguish between “faux multi-tenancy” and “true multi-tenancy.” A true multi-tenant environment provides tangible benefits in terms of lower costs for the service and better service levels because it’s easier for the provider to deliver the service.

A real multi-tenant environment never comingles data from multiple customers. It provides complete flexibility to configure objects or import/export historical data. And it is not a virtualized single-tenant solution. Most importantly, each customer’s data is secure relative to other customer’s data and customization can be employed to the degree the application supports it without regard to what the other tenants are doing.

There’s a lot of confusion around how to implement multi-tenancy. In a push to join the cloud bandwagon, most on-premise vendors now call themselves “multi-tenant-enabled.” Running a customer on a single instance of a customized virtual application – and using an object ID to distinguish comingled customer data at the database level – is not the best implementation of a multi-tenant architecture.

At SuccessFactors, we believe multi-tenancy is the ability to run multiple customers on a single software instance installed on multiple servers. This approach delivers valuable benefits. It increases resource utilization by allowing load balancing among tenants. It reduces operational complexity and cost in managing the software that delivers the service. And it allows tenants to use the application as though they have an instance of the software entirely to themselves, which is completely secure and insulated from impact by others.

The SuccessFactors Approach

SuccessFactors uses a unique, hybrid multi-tenant architecture that serves millions of users around the world in a secure yet cost-effective manner. This architecture completely separates your data from other customers’ data, while allowing us to roll out rapidly the latest functionality to everyone, all at once. This approach also offers the most configurability and allows you to extract deep insight from your data.

Not all approaches to multi-tenancy are created equal. The following descriptions show how SuccessFactors’ multi-tenant architecture differs from other approaches:

  1. Multi-tenant with identical schemas: This  approach, offered by some competitors, offers substantial scalability. But it limits configuration options for each customer, forcing them to cope with limited business process support from the application.
  2. Multi-tenant with custom schemas: Other  competitors use this approach, which offers a wide range of configuration options for each customer. But it limits the vendor's ability to maintain one code base. It may also require the vendor to introduce customer-specific complexity into the code line, potentially impacting  performance and responsiveness.
  3. SuccessFactors’ unique hybrid  approach:  While the core of our approach is multi-tenant with identical database  schemas for each customer, our customers are logically segmented at the  database level, complete with their own database schema. You can export  your own schema out of the database, import or export data, and configure  or modify fields. With this approach, we enable individual extensibility within the schemas with our Meta Data Framework (MDF) and XML objects  maintained in the identical schemas. We retain all the advantages of a  highly scalable and secure multi-tenant model while still offering a highly configurable application. We also provide a distinct application instance per customer, offering better security through enforced memory segregation.

Check out the advantages of SuccessFactors’ unique multi-tenant architecture:

  • Continuous, timely improvement: With all our customers on the same release, we can react to market demands or industry changes more quickly. That’s because we can focus on one version for support and the next version for development. As a result, you get the benefits of four releases per year.

  • More flexibility: You retain full ownership of your data without fear of comingling that data. This has positive security implications. What’s more, it provides the flexibility to import and export your data, configure the application to match your business rules, and integrate your data with your ecosystem.

  • Better usage: With multiple tenants on a single software instance, we can analyze and aggregate the behavioral use of our solutions. We can identify application areas that are not often used, make improvements, and recommend training for specific customers that are not taking full advantage of their solutions.

  • Faster tracking and fixing of issues: Because all customers are on a single code base, we can easily diagnose a critical issue reported by one customer – and then respond swiftly to fix the issue for all customers.

  • Clearer insight: We can offer better system-wide analytics (for example, identifying most-used and least-used features and reasons why), benchmarks, best-practice content and polling information compared to single-tenant hosted solutions at both the control and parameter levels.

  • Improved performance: We can more precisely assess factors such as utilization, speed, and response times across multiple tenants in our platform – and more efficiently fine-tune the technology stack whenever needed.

  • Enhanced service: We have a vested interest in making sure everything runs smoothly.  In a single-tenant environment, a service disruption may affect only one customer. But a slight glitch in our multi-tenant environment could affect many customers. So we invest significant amounts of money and effort into ensuring uptime, continuity, and more efficient and effective service and support, including troubleshooting and problem resolution.

  • Increased customer participation: Our multi-tenant platform is similar to most consumer Web platforms like Yahoo! and Amazon. Each represents a single code base that is shared by all  users, with new capabilities accessible to all users simultaneously without the delays and labor-intensive processes of conventional software upgrades. These non-disruptive regular improvements encourage our customers to submit even more product enhancements.

  • Lower subscription cost: Because we only need to support one current release for all customers and the same basic infrastructure, our costs are reduced – and we pass those savings on to you.

It’s the Real Deal

Developing a scalable, secure, and cost-effective cloud technology platform requires a unique approach. Our distinctive multi-tenant cloud architecture has been tried and tested for over a decade. Today, the millions of users around the world who are currently benefiting from the system 24x7 are direct proof of its credibility.

Remember, multitenancy if done right offers several advantages. With SuccessFactors unique multi-tenant architecture there are no pitfalls, only perks and power in your hands.

Thanks for reading!

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