Introduction to Multi-Tenancy
Multi-tenancy is a software architecture where a single instance of an application serves multiple customers or "tenants." Each tenant's data is isolated and invisible to other tenants.
Key Benefits
- Cost Efficiency: Shared infrastructure reduces operational costs
- Scalability: Easy to scale across multiple tenants
- Maintenance: Single codebase to maintain and update
Implementation Strategies
There are three main approaches to implementing multi-tenancy:
- Shared Database, Shared Schema: All tenants share the same database and tables
- Shared Database, Separate Schema: Each tenant has their own schema
- Separate Databases: Each tenant has a completely separate database
The choice depends on your security, compliance, and scalability requirements.