Hey Larry, Multi-tenancy is Secure and Co-exists with Virtualization
Posted by Margaret Dawson on September 27, 2010
I realize Larry Ellison loves being the contrarian. But it’s clear from his comments made last week at Oracle Open World that he doesn’t get cloud computing or multi-tenancy. Nor does he seem to understand the fact that leading cloud vendors are using virtualization as part of their multi-tenant platforms to drive performance and scalability (not to mention writing most of their apps in Java, but that’s a whole different topic). Forrester analyst Stefan Ried wrote a great blog detailing the cloud confusion by Larry and Mark.
Also, as I understand it, Oracle’s Fusion HCM applications are multi-tenant. Hmmm.
At first read, it’s easy to “see” the logic in Larry’s opinion, when he said:
“Multitenancy is a horrible idea. . .What it means is, everyone’s data is commingled, everyone’s customer list is in a single database. That’s a horrible security model.”
However, he’s missing some key points. One, any cloud vendor worth its salt does not mix all customer data. There can be incredibly strong data segregation capabilities within a multi-tenant environment. What’s more, from a pure security standpoint, multi-tenancy can provide clear security benefits to companies, as the platform is operating at the highest common denominator.
For example, our cloud platform is PCI DSS and SAS 70 Type 2 compliant and adheres to encryption levels as outlined by the U.S. Department of Defense. This is a requirement for us to do business with folks such as Visa, Boeing and others. But all of our customers receive this level of security and compliance. Most companies, especially small to mid-sized organizations, could never afford to implement the level of security as required by these mandates.
Here are some of the key features we implement in regards to security in a multi-tenant environment:
- Transactional Boundaries
- Data Segregation
- Data Encryption and Protection
- Security Policies
- Strong Authentication / Authorization
- Access Control Rules
- Security Audits
- Infrastructure Security
While in general, multi-tenancy versus single-tenancy does not present a direct benefit to the customer, security is actually one area where a company can benefit from being in a multi-tenant environment. It’s unfortunate that because Oracle is late to the cloud game Larry chose to provide misinformation about multi-tenancy.
For a great report that provides some good facts and “what you need to knows” about multi-tenancy, see this report: ”Gartner Reference Architecture for Multitenancy” (does require subscription). You can also read analyst Yefim Natis’ blog on cloud and multi-tenancy.
Tags: Cloud Computing, Larry Ellison, Multi-tenancy, Oracle Open World
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