Master Tenant Reference Mechanism for Multi-Tenant Data Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Data management in multi-tenant architectures faces challenges such as data duplication leading to time-influenced decay, requiring significant resources for maintenance, and introducing technical debt, especially when data is replicated across systems.
Innovation Solution
Designating a single 'master tenant' to manage 'master data' used by all tenants, where sub-tenants store references to the master data instead of actual values, eliminating the need for data replication and allowing independent modeling of data relationships.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If data is replicated across multiple tenants, then data availability is improved, but data quality deteriorates due to time-influenced decay
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a reference copy mechanism where sub-tenants store references to master data instead of full copies. This allows data to be available across tenants through references while maintaining a single source of truth at the master tenant, eliminating data decay issues associated with distributed copies.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a reference mechanism as an intermediary between sub-tenants and master data. Instead of direct data copies, sub-tenants hold references that point to the master tenant's data, allowing indirect access while preserving data quality at the source.
2Ease of operation
If data is replicated across multiple tenants, then data accessibility is improved, but maintenance resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent stores only reference copies rather than full data copies in sub-tenants. This dramatically reduces the storage and maintenance resources required while maintaining data accessibility, as updates only need to be made at the master tenant location.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges data maintenance operations into a single location (master tenant) while distributing data access across multiple tenants. This consolidation eliminates redundant maintenance efforts across multiple tenant locations while preserving accessibility.
3Productivity
If data is replicated across multiple tenants, then data distribution is improved, but technical debt increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses reference copying instead of full data copying, which simplifies the data distribution mechanism. References are lightweight and easy to manage compared to full data copies, reducing the complexity and technical debt associated with data distribution.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of having each tenant maintain independent data copies, the patent inverts the approach by having all tenants reference a central master tenant's data. This inversion simplifies the system architecture and reduces technical debt by eliminating the need for complex synchronization and consistency management across distributed copies.
Data Source
AI summary
System and methods are described for managing references to master data within a multi-tenant architecture associated with an entity. In one implementation, a host database system defines a class of tenants within the multi-tenant architecture. The system designates a first tenant of a plurality of tenants as a master tenant, and defines the remaining tenants of the plurality of tenants as sub-tenants. The system further modifies data objects maintained by the sub-tenants to include references to data maintained by the master tenant.