Sarathlal N

An intro about single tenant architecture & multi tenant architecture

A single-tenant architecture (siloed model) is a single architecture per organization where the application has its own infrastructure, hardware, and software ecosystem.

Multi tenant architecture is an ecosystem or model, in which a single environment can serve multiple tenants utilizing a scalable, available, and resilient architecture. The infrastructure is completely shared, logically isolated, and with fully centralized services.

Types of Multi tenant SaaS architectures

  1. Application layer Multi-tenancy
  2. Database layer Multi-tenancy

Application layer Multi-tenancy

Examples

  1. Monolithic architecture for SaaS
  2. Microservices Architecture for SaaS with containers
  3. Kubernetes Architecture for SaaS
  4. Serverless Architecture for SaaS

Database Layer Multi-tenancy

When choosing database architecture, there are multiple criterias to assess. The criterias are Scalability (Number of tenants, storage per-tenant, workload), Tenant isolation, database costs (per tenant costs), development complexity (changes in schemas, queries, etc.), and operational complexity (Database clustering, update tenant data, database administration, and maintenance).

Examples

1. Single database: A table per tenant

Known as DB pooled model.

It consists of leveraging a table per each organization within a database schema. Every table name has its own tenantID, which is very straightforward to design and architect.

Pros

  1. Easy to scale
  2. Great for thousands of tenant

Cons

  1. Difficult for backup & recovery
  2. Poor data isolation
  3. Performance degradation (one tenant can overuse compute and ram resources from another)

2. Single Database: A schema per tenant

Known as the bridge model.

If there is more than 100 schemas or tenants within a database, it can provoke a lag in database performance. Hence, it is recommended to split the database into two (add the second database as a replica). The best database tool for this approach is PostgreSQL, which supports multiple schemas without much complexity. This strategy shares resources, compute, and storage across all its tenants.

Pros

  1. Less development complexity
  2. Secure than DB pooled model
  3. Can customize schemas per tenant

Cons

  1. This architecture not comply with PCI / HIPPA / FedRamp regulations
  2. Medium tenent isolation

3. Database Server Per Tenant

Also known as Siloed model.

Now we need a database instance per customer. Expensive, but the best for isolation and security compliance.

Pros

  1. High data isolation
  2. Widely used and accepted

Cons

  1. More cost
  2. Complex to manage dozens DB server

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