By Manoj Jasra
Expert Author
Article Date: 2008-01-10
Below Peter Coffee, Ddirector of Platform Research, salesforce.com, helps to explain multi-tenancy, how it is an enabler for effective cloud computing, and the competitive landscape.
Additionally, I was able to chat with Peter to offer more insight on the myths of multi-tenancy and how to leverage it. Download Peter Coffee's Multi-Tenancy whitepaper.
What are the 3 Biggest Myths Surrounding Multi-tenancy
Myth 1: Server virtualization provides the same benefits as multi-tenancy
Server virtualization provides superficial gains in flexible capacity addition, but in the process creates additional copies of many of the complexities and failure modes of conventional architectures
Multi-tenant applications enable deep customization if designed from the outset to represent customizations as robust metadata, rather than requiring complex and brittle code-level modification.
Myth 3: Multi-tenancy benefits the service provider rather than the service consumer
Multi-tenant application design improves separation between shared and private data and logic, easing customer adoption of service improvements compared to single-tenant or isolated-tenant environments
Multi-tenant code base unity streamlines introduction of new platform capabilities, giving customers more rapid improvements without application rewrites and other costs of conventional software upgrades
What are the top 5 reasons to leverage multi-tenancy
Maximize advantage from future trends in processor performance: Moore's Law is alive and well, but its jurisdiction has shifted: going forward, the cost per unit of capacity on shared systems will improve far more quickly than that of single-user machines
Minimize leakage of data to the ungovernable edge of the network: Rising standards of governance, combined with growing complexity of threat environments, demand that data and logic reside on professionally configured and administered systems rather than end-user hardware
Focus developer talent on competitive differentiation rather than commodity software maintenance: Developer skills are increasingly scarce and expensive: companies must offer opportunities to do creative work, and must not waste limited resources on capabilities that can be shared among many organizations
Integrate custom applications with best-of-breed Web services and data streams: Strategic applications increasingly generate value by combining expertise and information from many sources, making it attractive to build applications in multi-tenant environments that simplify connection
Extend the power of high-end enterprise systems to field offices, supply-chain partners and customers : Multi-tenant systems, designed for precisely controlled sharing and separation of data and function, reduce the difficulties and risks of presenting different views and feature sets to diverse (but cooperating) user communities.
About the Author: Manoj Jasra has been in the search marketing industry since 2002 with Enquiro Search Solutions. His role as the Director of Technology at Enquiro involves him developing strategic relationships with technology vendors, overseeing web analytics and designing cutting edge solutions for clients. Manoj's background in software development and experience in search marketing/web analytics gives him the ability to provide strategic consultation throughout the entire online marketing process.
Manoj's blog, Web Analytics World focuses on insight in Search Marketing, Blogging, Web Analytics and Technology; it is also one of the top read web analytics blogs. You can frequently find Manoj's writing at popular marketing publications.
