Does Multi-Tenancy enable vendors to capture different/more aggregate data than Single-Tenancy or Isolated-Tenancy?
Yes, Multi-Tenancy does enable vendors to capture more data than Single-Tenant or isolated-tenant applications. Generally, Single-Tenant applications do not contain the appropriate level of data gathering that applications architected specifically for Multi-Tenant environments have.
One of the main reasons this is true is that often when an application is deployed in a Single-Tenant model, its because the core product was not built to support Multi-Tenancy and the vendor simply does not want to take the time to re-architect the product. What this also means is that the product was most likely not designed to capture usage data, meta data, etc., because its original function was that of a stand-alone, purpose-built application rather than a Product based on any type of Business Architecture or Commercialization Methodology.
Ultimately, it is the aggregate data that is the most valuable, and you must do the best with what you have. If you have a Single-Tenant product and can aggregate the data from each of the Single-Tenant Instances of the product, you should. The fact is, if a Single-Tenant application is architected in a way that takes into consideration complete data capture beyond the core function of the product, and the Vendor builds an external system for aggregating data from the separate systems for reporting purposes, then it can be done. However, this is easier said than done and as the number of isolated systems scales out, this becomes harder to manage. Customization within each Application Instance further complicates this process. This is the Application Service Provider (ASP) model and it is difficult to manage over the long-term.
It is critical to consider that if you are going to the lengths described here to aggregate data, and you are building the application from scratch, you might want to employ the true SaaS Business Architecture and reap the real rewards contained therein.
Author: Lincoln Murphy