Tenant-Specific Database Segmentation for Multi-Client Systems
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional multi-client server systems face challenges in managing database upgrades, content deployment, and data backup/recovery due to shared databases, leading to increased downtime and reliability issues, while single-client systems require significant client effort and expertise for maintenance.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system where data structures are designated as tenant-specific, allowing for separate storage and management, enabling providers to host multiple clients with isolated and secure data structures, and using shared data structures stored in a provider space accessible by tenants.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a multi-client system uses a common database for all clients, then resource sharing and cost efficiency are improved, but database maintenance time and client downtime increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the common database into tenant-specific databases, where each tenant has their own isolated database instance. This segmentation allows independent maintenance, backup, and recovery operations for each tenant without affecting others, thereby reducing overall maintenance downtime while preserving resource sharing benefits at the platform level.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts tenant-specific data and structures from the common database into separate tenant databases. This extraction enables the provider to use standard database tools for individual tenant operations and allows maintenance activities to be performed on specific tenant databases without impacting the entire system.
2Ease of manufacture
If a multi-client system uses a common database, then infrastructure cost is reduced, but content deployment time and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a copying mechanism where tenant-specific databases can be created by copying from template databases or existing tenant databases. This allows rapid content deployment and tenant provisioning without manual setup, reducing deployment time while maintaining cost efficiency through automated database creation and management.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses pre-configured database templates that contain standard structures, schemas, and initial data. These templates are prepared in advance, allowing new tenant databases to be quickly instantiated by copying and customizing the template, thereby accelerating content deployment while maintaining infrastructure efficiency.
3Device complexity
If a multi-client system uses a common database, then system simplicity is maintained, but data backup and recovery capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments data storage into tenant-specific databases while maintaining a unified management interface. This segmentation enables reliable backup and recovery of individual tenant data using standard database tools without requiring complex custom solutions, thereby improving reliability while keeping the management interface simple.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a database management layer that acts as an intermediary between the simplified user interface and the segmented tenant databases. This intermediary handles the complexity of multi-tenant database management, backup, and recovery operations transparently, allowing users to benefit from both simplicity and reliability.
4Reliability
If a single-client system is used for each client, then data isolation and reliability are improved, but client maintenance effort and expertise requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service capabilities where tenants can perform routine maintenance operations on their own databases using standardized tools and interfaces. This reduces the need for provider intervention and client expertise while maintaining data isolation, as tenants can independently manage their own database instances.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent provides a universal database management platform that handles multiple functions (creation, maintenance, backup, recovery) for all tenant databases through a single interface. This universality reduces client maintenance effort by consolidating operations that would otherwise require specialized knowledge into standardized, provider-managed processes.
Data Source
AI summary
Exemplary methods and systems may designate a data structure as tenant-specific or shared. By reviewing a plurality of data structures at the provider corresponding to a plurality of tenants, the provider may determine which of the plurality of data structures are specific to a first tenant of the plurality of tenants, and generate a tenant specific designation to identify a data structure as specific to the first tenant. Further, the provider may associate a data structure determined to be specific to the first tenant with the generated tenant specific designation. With this capability a provider-tenant system may separately store each tenants data.