Explaining The Differences Between
Single-Tenant and Multi-Tenant Clouds!
Introduction:
Tenancy is a term used in cloud computing to describe the sharing of computing resources in
a private or public environment that is isolated from other users and kept secret. In Software
as a Service (SaaS), the tenancy is divided into two types: single-tenant SaaS and
multi-tenant SaaS.
What is a Single-Tenant Architecture?
A dedicated infrastructure allows for a single-tenant cloud. This means that all hardware,
storage, and network resources are dedicated to a single client, and you will not share
hosted resources with any neighborhood.
Single-tenancy architectures are common in data centers and managed private cloud
providers that offer dedicated offsite facilities. In a single-tenancy architecture, each tenant
has a database. As a result, data from each tenant is kept separate from the others.
Furthermore, the architecture is configured to allow only one software instance per SaaS
server.

Advantages Of Single Tenant Cloud
1. Enhanced Security: Data isolation in single-tenant software offers true protection and
increased security.
2. Migration: When a tenant wants to move their application from a single-tenant (SaaS)
system into a self-hosted or local environment, they can migrate the app quickly.
3. Customization: Single tenancy allows consumers to design an environment that meets
their exact needs.
4. Reliability: Consistency and high performance are characteristics of single-tenant
architecture.
Drawbacks Of Single-Tenant Cloud:
1. Cost: Single-tenant does not allow cost-sharing for facilities such as deployment and
monitoring, which increases costs. In addition, companies often have to customize the
software to meet their needs and maintain the application themselves. This can take more
resources and time, resulting in higher costs.
2. Maintenance: Due to continuous changes and improvements, a single-tenant
architecture requires a lot of maintenance.
3. Setup: Delays may occur since each installation has its own unique configuration and
learning curve.
What is a Multi-Tenant Architecture
A multi-tenant cloud architecture is a cloud infrastructure that is designed to serve multiple
businesses. It combines multiple servers and data centers into a single database. Cloud
providers provide multi-tenancy as a way for multiple businesses to share the same
application on the same hardware and operating system.
Advantages of Multi-Tenant Cloud:
1. Scalability: A multi-tenant cloud allows for onboarding users quickly, with no difference
between onboarding ten users from a thousand companies or a thousand users from one
company.
2. Saves money: Consolidating resources and allocating them efficiently with
multi-tenancy allows for significant cost savings over time.

3. Flexibility: A multi-tenant cloud is able to allocate a pool of resources to the users who
need it as their needs scale up and down.
4. Efficiency: Multitenancy reduces the need to manage infrastructure and handle
updates.
Drawbacks of multi-tenant cloud
1. Security: Cybercriminals can exploit multiple access points to breach a company's
network security.
2. Backup and restoration: Many companies fail to keep up with the latest advances in
backup and restoration options.
3. Limited Management: Limited management features reduce the consumer's ability to
interact with the system.
Conclusion:
A single-tenant architecture is best if you want control over your data and total privacy. But it
also proves costly to develop a complete application that can serve one business while
being stored in a separate database. A multi-tenant architecture is cheaper because it
shares an application with other businesses connected to the same hardware.