The software world is certainly no stranger to vigorous debates over the superiority of one technology vs. another and one of the latest debates in this vein is multi-tenant vs. single tenant virtualization. The context for this debate is cloud and the question is which of these two technologies offers consumers of cloud software the biggest bang for their buck.
In his recent article, Multi-tenancy: are they selling you a pup?, Phil Wainewright argues both sides of the coin and provides valid business cases for both technologies. Mr. Wainewright’s conclusion, which he makes as an assertion right up front, is that any given vendor’s pitch is going to be flavored by what they have in their bag to sell you. I would certainly agree. However, he goes on to provide cloud software buyers some solid advice. Mr. Wainewright purposes that how the solution is delivered is irrelevant as long as two key criteria are met:
- Governance: nothing will happen to your data or processes that breaks your own rules governing how they should be handled.
- Sustainable advantage: bluntly speaking, the provider hasn’t sold you a pup that won’t live up to its promises or will rapidly cease to be competitive.
While both of these criteria are extremely important, I would submit that there is a third criteria that is even more important. It might be implied by ‘promises’ in the second criteria, but maybe not. Therefore, I would add Business Need or Business Requirement as the first and single most important consideration for any software solution. If the solution does not meet your business need then nothing else matters. The solution cloud utilize the coolest technology around and adhere to your standards for governance, but if the off-the-shelf functionality provided by the solution does not fulfill your business case then you really should look elsewhere.
Heath-
Heath Brownsworth 
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