Object-Relational Mapping Framework to Enable Multi- Tenancy Attributes in SaaS Applications

ReceivedOct 20 th , 2012 Accepted Oct 31 th , 2012 During the last decade, there has been a major paradigm shift in the way the software services are being provided to the enterprise and corporate sector. Instead of using on-premises LOB (Line of Business) applications, corporations and enterprises are switching to off-premises host applications that are now being offered as a service by several software companies. This new concept of providing software service is generally known as SaaS (i.e., Software as a Service). However, the adaptation of such a model necessitates that the applications which are required to be provided as a service should be generalized for users or groups of users. The users or user groups ordinarily correspond to a company or group of companies/businesses and are termed as tenants. In this regard, the architecture of SaaS applications needs to be customized to support certain characteristics — e.g., configurability, maintainability and scalability — to support diverse number of users. This paper, firstly, analyzes new trends in the present day business environment alongside the hardware and software industry that led to the development of SaaS model; and then looks into the characteristics and features that a multitenant system needs to possess in order to put this concept into practice. Keyword: