Mehrmandanten

Mehrmandanten, also known as multi-tenancy, is a software architecture in which a single instance of the software serves multiple customers, referred to as tenants. Each tenant shares the same application, operating system, and database, but their data is isolated and remains invisible to other tenants. This model is commonly used in Software as a Service (SaaS) applications to efficiently serve numerous clients with a single deployment.

The primary advantage of mehrmandanten architecture is cost efficiency. By sharing resources among tenants, service providers can reduce infrastructure and maintenance costs, which can then be passed on to customers in the form of lower prices. Additionally, this model simplifies software updates and maintenance, as changes only need to be applied once to the central instance, rather than to multiple separate instances.

There are several approaches to implementing multi-tenancy, including database-per-tenant, schema-per-tenant, and shared schema. In the database-per-tenant model, each tenant has its own separate database. The schema-per-tenant model uses a shared database but creates separate schemas for each tenant. The shared schema model, on the other hand, uses a single database and schema for all tenants, with tenant data differentiated by a tenant identifier.

Security and data isolation are critical aspects of mehrmandanten systems. Robust access controls and data encryption mechanisms are essential to ensure that each tenant's data remains confidential and secure. Despite these challenges, the mehrmandanten model continues to be a popular choice for SaaS providers due to its scalability, cost-effectiveness, and operational efficiency.