Single tenant vs. Multi-tenant Cloud architecture: Which one to choose and Why?

Single Tenant vs. Multi-tenant Cloud Architecture

With the increase in the hype of cloud computing and cloud-based services, cloud providers decided to render different forms of services to their tenants that they can choose as per their budget and requirements. We are all familiar with the various benefits cloud provides across all sectors and industries. Cloud-based services have created a massive surge in the global industrial landscape because of the flexibility in the usage of their services. According to the new Research and Market prediction, the cloud industry will boost from USD 371.4 to USD 832.1 billion by 2025. One such flexibility that the cloud providers bring to their users is adopting the single and multi-tenant architecture according to user requirements. When choosing a cloud service, the primary decision that enterprises should make is about which type of architecture to opt for the business. This article will give a complete walkthrough of the single-tenant and multi-tenant architecture and which one to choose based on different scenarios.

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is a pay-as-you-use technology that provides rented services like computation, storage, security, networking, virtual servers, online apps, voice and video calling services, etc., via the internet. Cloud services are flexible and cost-effective. Cloud service providers deliver services like networking, cloud transformation services, cloud data migration services, and plug-and-go resources against a monthly subscription fee.

Cloud computing services and models

What is a tenant in cloud computing?

A tenant is a group of users, cloud customers, or enterprises sharing common access to cloud resources (hardware) & their software instances with distinct privileges. Based on the tenants, cloud computing architecture, pricing, and security depend. There are two different forms of tenant-based architecture in cloud computing. These are:

· Single-tenant
· Multi-tenant

Let us take a closer look at both of them and analyze which one works best for an enterprise in which situation.

Single Tenant Architecture in Cloud Computing

Single-tenant cloud architecture is a cloud utilization technique wherein the cloud service provider dedicates a cloud segment (having a single software instance, supporting infrastructure, & database) or server to a single enterprise or customer. Such cloud architecture encapsulates all cloud-based enterprise operations, data, and interactions distinctly from other tenants/customers of that CSP. Also, the cloud provider does not share even the slightest information about the tenant or its associated services anyway. Cloud providers push updates and manage all the software instances plus dedicated hardware infrastructure associated with the single-tenant architecture. Furthermore, the cloud service provider renders such customers or enterprises complete flexibility over software, service, and infrastructure modification. Numerous companies prefer to use single-tenant architecture for better & personalized management of cloud interaction and robust data security.

Benefits of Single Tenant Architecture

Enterprises use single-tenant architecture less because it is costly & caters to particular purposes such as better maintenance and auditing. Here is a list of some benefits that a single-tenant architecture provides for enterprises running on cloud computing.

1. Easy customization and maintenance: In various cloud models, especially SaaS, the cloud provider thoroughly manages the various service updates. However, in the case of single-tenant architecture, the cloud provider can give dedicated access to cloud servers so that the customer can manage their rented infrastructure, computing power, storage, server logs, and security. Customers get different privileges and ownership control in a multi-tenant architecture.

2. High reliability: Single-tenant cloud architecture brings more reliability because the software instance serves only one customer. Also, its entire architecture remains unaffected by various cloud issues such as peak load or heavy traffic. Scaling is comparatively easy in single-tenant, making cloud infrastructure available for dynamically changing users’ requirements.

3. Enhance data security: In the single-tenant architecture, the customers or tenants can isolate the software instances and their associated components like infrastructure and databases within the same provider. Through this approach, no other outsider or individual apart from your organization’s employee can access the data or perform malicious actions. In case of any cloud vulnerability found in another’s hosted systems, it will not impact your business & keep your data and operating assets safe from threats. Hence, enterprises prefer single-tenant architecture the most to enhance data security.

Single tenant vs. Multi-tenant services

Multi-Tenant Architecture in Cloud Computing

Multi-tenant cloud architecture is another cloud utilization technique wherein the cloud service provider does not dedicate a cloud segment or server to a single enterprise or customer. Instead, the software instance serves multiple customers or tenants within the same cloud provider. Such servers and their software and other components serve numerous clients. Cloud providers allow multiple customers to use a single software instance and its associated infrastructure, such as a database system. Although, in a multi-tenant architecture, one customer’s data is not visible to other customers. However, in such architecture, all the tenants use the same cloud server, software instances, and databases, which makes it prone to security risks in case of any vulnerability. Often cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure use multi-tenant architecture for providing public cloud. According to Research and Markets report, the multi-tenant cloud data center market will grow at a CAGR of around 8 percent during the forecast period from 2021 to 2026.

Benefits of Multi-Tenant Architecture

Enterprises prefer multi-tenant architecture because of less cost and rapid deployment characteristics. Here is a list of some benefits that a multi-tenant architecture delivers to enterprises that run on cloud technologies.

1. Efficient resource utilization: Unlike single-tenant architecture, where lots of cloud computation and other cloud resources get wasted because of underutilization; resources in a multi-tenant architecture get utilized to their maximum extent. Enterprises can enjoy maximum utilization of this cloud architecture because it gets shared by multiple users. Companies with numerous branches or companies under one parent company prefer multi-tenant architecture for optimum utilization.

2. Immediate & frequent feature deployment: All customers who leverage the multi-tenant cloud architecture under one cloud provider get all the feature updates. This architecture becomes helpful when companies with fewer technical support professionals manage corporate operations. Multi-tenancy is the heart of all SaaS-based services because it helps deploy applications and updates faster with less effort.

3. Lower the cloud cost: Since multiple tenants share and utilize the same software instance, its associated cloud infrastructure, and data center, the operational expenditure went down for the cloud provider. Since it becomes cheaper for the cloud vendor to build and maintain such cloud architecture, the overall cost of all the tenants gets reduced. Such architecture also reduces infrastructure implications significantly.

Single-tenant or Multi-tenant — which one to choose and why

Companies or organizations that render data privacy & security of paramount importance prefer to use single-tenant architecture. BFSI sectors, healthcare industries, and government security agencies are perfect examples that pick single tenancy. Again organizations that require following strict compliance regulations such as COPAA, HIPPA, GDPR, etc., can go with single-tenant to set their custom regulatory compliance. But if excessive costing & slow deployment of feature updates are a concern rather than security, organizations should opt for multi-tenant architecture. Enterprises can easily pick their favourable cloud architecture simply by seeing the benefits.

Conclusion –

We hope this article gives a crisp idea of single-tenant and multi-tenant architecture and how it benefits an enterprise. It is up to the tenants to decide which one to choose as per their requirements. If you want to learn to prepare more content revolving around single-tenancy and multi-tenancy cloud architecture, stay tuned to my blogging channel or contact me.

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