Defining multi-tenancy: A systematic mapping study on the academic and the industrial perspective

Jaap Kabbedijk*, Cor Paul Bezemer, Slinger Jansen, Andy Zaidman

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

37 Citations (Scopus)
168 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Software as a service is frequently offered in a multi-tenant style, where customers of the application and their end-users share resources such as software and hardware among all users, without necessarily sharing data. It is surprising that, with such a popular paradigm, little agreement exists with regard to the definition, domain, and challenges of multi-tenancy. This absence is detrimental to the research community and the industry, as it hampers progress in the domain of multi-tenancy and enables organizations and academics to wield their own definitions to further their commercial or research agendas. In this article, a systematic mapping study on multi-tenancy is described in which 761 academic papers and 371 industrial blogs are analysed. Both the industrial and academic perspective are assessed, in order to get a complete overview. The definition and topic maps provide a comprehensive overview of the domain, while the research agenda, listing four important research topics, provides a roadmap for future research efforts.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)139-148
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Systems and Software
Volume100
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2015

Keywords

  • Definition
  • Multi-tenancy
  • Systematic mapping study

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