Multi-Tenant SaaS Architecture on ColdFusion: Data Isolation, Throttling, and Per-Client Config

ColdFusion is a capable platform for building multi-tenant SaaS — the core work is three things done right. Data isolation: pick an isolation model (database-per-tenant for maximum separation, schema-per-tenant for a balance, or shared-schema with a tenant_id discriminator column for efficiency) and enforce it rigorously — with ColdFusion you can define per-tenant datasources dynamically in Application.cfc (this.datasources, supported since CF11) or pass a datasource per query to queryExecute(), and in the shared-schema model every single query must be scoped by tenant_id. Throttling: ColdFusion has no built-in per-tenant rate limiter, so you implement one with a token-bucket using cacheGet/cachePut (Redis-backed for multiple nodes) keyed on the tenant, returning HTTP 429 when a tenant exceeds its tier — this prevents a "noisy neighbor" from starving others. Per-client config: load each tenant's configuration (feature flags, plan entitlements, branding, limits) once and cache it, keyed by tenant. The linchpin of the whole design is identifying the tenant early (from subdomain, header, or authenticated user) in onRequestStart and carrying that tenant context through every request. This guide covers all three with verified CFML.
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