Service Provider Application Instances Securing Customer Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Customers are wary of using SaaS applications due to potential data vulnerabilities from multiple tenants accessing the same application instance, and they prefer not to entrust service providers with security management and access control for their digital data.
Innovation Solution
Implementing service provider managed application instances that access customer-managed data sources, where the service provider application instances operate on either customer-managed or service provider-managed computing resources, using secured communications channels and customer-revocable access controls to ensure data security and access management is controlled by the customer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If service provider manages application instances with multi-tenant architecture, then application functionality and service availability are improved, but data security and customer control are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the multi-tenant application architecture by implementing customer-specific virtual environments or isolated compute resources within the service provider's infrastructure. Each customer's data and application instances are separated through virtualization or containerization techniques, allowing multiple tenants to share the physical infrastructure while maintaining logical isolation. This resolves the contradiction by enabling service availability through shared resources while preserving data security through segmentation.
Solution Approach 2:
The service provider acts as an intermediary between the customer's data and the application processing. The architecture introduces a mediation layer that manages data access requests, authentication, and authorization. This intermediary layer allows the service provider to manage application instances while the customer retains control over data access policies, thus maintaining both service availability and data security.
2Reliability
If customer manages their own security and access control, then data security and control are improved, but system complexity and operational burden are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service capabilities that allow customers to manage their own security policies, access controls, and data protection settings through automated interfaces. The service provider's platform includes built-in tools for policy management, authentication configuration, and access control that customers can configure and modify without requiring deep security expertise. This reduces operational burden while maintaining customer control over data security.
Solution Approach 2:
The service provider implements a universal security management platform that handles multiple security functions (authentication, authorization, encryption, access control) through a single integrated system. This multi-functional approach allows customers to manage diverse security requirements through a unified interface, reducing the complexity of managing multiple separate security systems while maintaining comprehensive data protection.
3Productivity
If service provider application instances directly access customer data, then processing efficiency is improved, but data vulnerability and security risk are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The architecture implements a nested structure where customer data resides in secure customer-managed storage, and service provider application instances access this data through nested virtualized environments. The data is logically contained within customer security boundaries while allowing controlled access for processing. This nested arrangement enables efficient data processing by application instances while maintaining data vulnerability protection through the nested security layers.
Solution Approach 2:
An intermediary data access layer is introduced between service provider application instances and customer data storage. This intermediary layer implements secure data retrieval, transformation, and return mechanisms that allow application instances to process customer data efficiently without direct access to the underlying data stores. The intermediary ensures data is accessed only through authenticated and authorized channels, reducing data vulnerability while maintaining processing efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for providing application services to a customer are provided. Customer-managed computing resources on a customer network may facilitate the provision of application services to a client device coupled to the customer network. Application instances providing the application services may execute either on the customer-managed computing resources or on computing resources managed by the service provider. Application services may be rendered to the customer while sensitive customer data maintains residency on storage resources on the customer network. Application instances may receive requests for services from the customer, and generate corresponding requests for particular data of the sensitive customer data. These requests may be conveyed to the endpoints on customer network capable of fulfilling the requests. Customer-managed computing resources and service provider-managed computing resources may be respective first and second subsets of a pool of shared computing resources, implemented as virtual private clouds (VPCs) accessible over respective private networks.