TOP 5 REASONS WHY USING MULTI-TENANT ARCHITECTURE IS BETTER

Typically, it is common that an organization which offers an in-house application continues to operate through a separate and dedicated server with storage space. This includes separate applications and separate infrastructure.

The transition to cloud computing has been advantageous for these organizations that have introduced multi-tenant architecture. With this new configuration, the SaaS vendor operates using the same server and storage space to provide multiple user accounts, also known as, the same application with a shared infrastructure.

The best feature of a multi-tenant environment is that each user account is unaware of other user’s existence, even when they're working on the same infrastructure, they are still acting independently.

A relevant comparison for understanding multi-tenant architecture is an apartment building. With a basic setup, you have the main building with hallways, and amenities which is the ‘cloud environment’ in the multi-tenant architecture. However, you can customize the allocated space to your name, which is the ‘user accounts’ in the multi-tenant architecture.

Now, what is Multi-Tenant Architecture?

A single instance of the software (the workable application) is set up and operates on the cloud vendor’s infrastructure like AWS, Azure, GCP, and serves the needs of several customers simultaneously.

Integrated into the multi-tenant architecture, customers are unaware of additional data that is stored exclusively. Which, however, makes the tenants invisible to one another.

What is Single-Tenant Architecture?

A single-tenancy architecture, that a single instance software functions through on a dedicated cloud server while only serving one customer at a time. The setup is possible among organizations that have resource-intensive workloads.

An easy comparable for understanding single-tenant architecture can be a villa that you create for your family. You will configure an exclusive building – which represents the dedicated server space that you own. With a single tenant you do not have to share anything with anyone, and every computing resource will only be accessible to you.

The biggest difference between single-tenancy and multi-tenancy is with multi, there is a “Noisy Neighbour” effect. This is when several tenants will make requests on the same database server, and performance issues will occur, and it will result in noisy neighbours.

To manage the allocation, and deallocation of resources to avoid starting the noisy neighbour effect is through a priority setting.

There are 2 types of Multi-Tenancy through Cloud Computing

1. One App Instance, with One Database

With this configuration, the software is supported by one database, and all the user accounts are accessed within the software product.

This style offers scalability, and increased correspondence to resources and capacity as tenants increase. The biggest downside to this style is the noisy neighbour effect.

2. One App Instance with Several Databases

With this configuration, the software is supported by several databases, and each tenant has a designated database that is independently maintained.

This version of multi tenancy can get expensive because you are asking for a separate space to store the application’s data. Scalability is not as easy with this version, but there is no noisy neighbour effect.

Okay, but how does Multi-tenancy work?

Alongside a multi-tenant architecture, a single instance of the software is contributed to the public cloud and is accessible to several tenants. However, when a new tenant starts, the software has the ability to be customized to suit their individual needs.

Here are the top benefits to Multi-Tenant Architecture:

1. Economies of Scale

This allows for renting common resources for your application on the cloud infrastructure. It includes the cost that you pay to host a multi-tenant software application that is fixed and could vary overtime.

When cloud resources that are fixed and vary with scalability are purchased the value and profits bring in improved economies of scale.

2. Easy maintenance, updates and upgrades

In the case of SaaS Multi-tenant architecture, users are not required to pay many fees to keep the software up to date. Maintenance costs are typically associated with a SaaS subscription and are not charged per case, unlike the Single tenant structure.

The maintenance costs, especially for updates, are shared between every tenant since they all use the same code from the same pool, which reduces the overall costs for each tenant.

3. Convenient onboarding of New Tenants

Multiple customer onboarding has sparked fame and become a primary focus for vendors since poor user experience can directly affect the growth prospects.  

4. The Virtue of Scalability

The more hardware that is added to a Multi-Tenant SaaS model, the more horsepower for the entire system there will be. Which will then provide excellent scalability to every tenant.

Our hope is that this gave you a better understanding for Multi-Tenant Architecture, and gave you better insight on what to use as a foundation for your business or software. Reach out to one of our experts at ISU Corp if you have any questions!

All About Sharepoint And It's Benefits

Have you always wondered about “What is SharePoint? What are its benefits and how can it help my team?” Today’s blog is going to answer those exact questions. We will take you through the basics of what Sharepoint is, the benefits of using it, and how you can get started. 

What is SharePoint?

Sharepoint is a digital cloud-based platform made for collaboration and project management. It's perfect for the social distanced age as it allows your team to still work together remotely and effectively. It allows you to manage all of your corporate content (financials, marketing materials, etc) so you can have everything in one easy to access location. It also lets you create websites, post company alerts to keep everyone in the loop, automate workflows, and build customized apps to help your team's productivity. 

It offers all these tasks in one easy to use platform, making collaboration a dream.

What are the Benefits?

As mentioned before, SharePoint offers many great features, but how do they all come together to really benefit us? Here are a couple of key benefits of using SharePoint:

1. SharePoint is Secure

If you heard your documents were all going to be on one platform the first thing you might have thought of are security concerns. But with this being a Microsoft piece of software you already know the security is taken very seriously. They place a heavy emphasis on protecting their customer's information, which is why they spend 1 Billion USD annually just on security. 

Some of the built-in security features include: 

• The ability to limit who outside your organization can see your content

• Set limits on who in your organization can access certain things

• Block or allow access to certain content just based on your team's location

2. SharePoint Excels Collaboration Amongst Team Members

Working remotely has its benefits but it certainly depletes one aspect in every business. Collaboration. When your team is not together there can be some concern on how they will be able to work together effectively and efficiently, however SharePoint provides a platform that simplifies collaboration. SharePoint puts all your documents into one place and lets them be accessed from any device at any time. As well, it shows real-time changes to documents and lets multiple people work on a document at one time, meaning your team can all be collaborating at the same time. 

Team members can also set up group tasks, assign tasks to other members, and check off tasks as they are completed. This allows everyone to know exactly what their responsibilities are and what everyone else is completing. 

3. SharePoint Helps Automate Pesky and Time-Consuming Tasks 

Having to collect signatures from employees or get approval can be annoying, especially when you want to just get back to your task. Sharepoint makes it easy to collect signatures and approvals digitally, meaning you'll spend less time chasing after your boss in the office and more time checking off tasks. 

As well, it automates other tasks such as tracking statuses on documents and enables notifications to see when something changes, etc. All these automations are called workflows and the most commonly used ones are: 

• Approval workflows

• Status workflows

• Notification workflows 

• Automation workflows

• Custom workflows

Isn’t SharePoint Hard To Use?

This is the same question that is always asked by any project manager before adopting new software and with good reason too. No one wants to adopt and transfer their team to a new platform just to make your life harder. Just like with any project management platform, if you prepare your team on how to use the platform and take time to implement it properly, it will be smooth sailing from that point forward. Not to mention, Microsoft is known for continuously updating their products so they can be the best, meaning you will continue to get improved service and new features. 

If you still have software questions or want to get in touch for more tips, please feel free to reach out to us at ISU Corp. 

Top 5 Best Blogging Platforms

Blogging has become extremely popular whether it's for-profit or for personal use, many people blog. To blog, you need to have a good blogging platform to be successful. Here are the best blogging platforms and why:

Blogger 

Blogger is an old school blogging platform that is currently operated by Google. It's free and very easy to use with an existing Google account. Your blog can also be integrated with Google AdSense so you can easily monetize your blog. The downfall is that bloggers can be simplistic and it's difficult to transition to a different blogging platform. 

WordPress 

WordPress is another popular blogging platform that is great if you want to get creative with your blog. They offer a variety of themes, fonts, and options to create a custom look. The only downfall is that the free tier does not allow you to monetize on your blog. 

Jekyll

Jekyll is essentially a site generator. You create your content in TXT files and then build your site via liquid language templates. Once that's done you upload both on Jekyll and it will merge the two. The downfall is it is not as user-friendly as other blogging platforms, but this gives you advanced features to your blog such as plug-ins, excerpt rendering, the community maintained themes, etc. As well the platform is free. 

Typepad

Typepad is designed for the professional program as it offers a lot of flexibility and easily integrates with Google Analytics. Typepad lets you customize the design of your blog with custom CSS. Typepad is also fully hosted and has support available. However, this platform has no free tier. 

Medium

Medium is great if you want a simplistic platform. The medium does not offer many design features, however they are extremely user-friendly and have a free tier. You also can’t link Google Analytics to the website, however medium offers stats.

For more software tips or general inquiries on outsourcing, feel free to reach out to us!