Object-Relational Mapping Framework to Enable Multi-Tenancy Attributes in SaaS Applications

During the last decade, there has been a major paradigm shift in the way the software services are being provided to the enterprise and corporate sector. Instead of using on-premises LOB (Line of Business) applications, corporations and enterprises are switching to off-premises host applications that are now being offered as a service by several software companies. This new concept of providing software service is generally known as SaaS (i.e., Software as a Service). However, the adaptation of such a model necessitates that the applications - that are required to be provided as a service should be generalized for users or groups of users. The users or user groups ordinarily correspond to a company or group of companies/businesses and are termed as tenants. In this regard, the architecture of SaaS applications needs to be customized to support certain characteristics – e.g., configurability, maintainability and scalability – to support a diverse numbers of users. This paper, firstly, analyzes new trends in the present day business environment alongside the hardware and software industry that led to the development of SaaS model; and then looks into the characteristics and features that a multi-tenant system needs to possess in order to put this concept into practice.