Writing a SAAS is not easy!

Focus SaaS

I have started A prefix in my github account named Focus to collect what I could find on web about rare topics or One-page learning for beginner level topics;

I began this series with focus_postgresql and I hope I can release more and more on this series;

focus_saas repo will look at some challenges and some technical strategies related to SaaS applications;

What the heck is a SaaS application?

Based on WIKIPEDIA: Software as a service (SaaS /sæs/[1]) (also known as subscribeware or rentware) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted.
SaaS has become a common delivery model for many business applications, including office software, messaging software, payroll processing software, DBMS software, management software, CAD software, development software, gamification, virtualization,[5] accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), management information systems (MIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, human resource management (HRM), talent acquisition, learning management systems, content management (CM), geographic information systems (GIS), and service desk management.[6] SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of nearly all leading enterprise software companies.[7][8]

So basically it is a release strategy. However, there are tons of technical challenge related to this release method;

Challenges of SaaS Application

Business Perspective

• Managing SaaS subscription lifecycle
• A customizable system (Or top 5 business model with strict rules)
• GDPR and HIPAA compliant

Technical Perspective

• Managing multi-tenancy in different level
• Finding best Architecture solution based on business perspective
• Predict future changes that could affect on your Architecture
• Designing database to fullfil security and isolation requirement
• Implementing best deployment solution for zero downtime for all tenant

Architecture importance in SaaS applications

There are three different layer that result four different Architecture;

• Infrastructure
• Database
• Application

1. Complete isolation

In this solution you deliver whole product from Infrastructure to application to your user;
Generally speaking, It's not the best solution for most businesses due to its costs;

Pros	Cons
Complete isolation from physical level	Costs, costs and costs for each new tenant (and it means more expensive subscriptions)
Full control of client load for better optimizations	Updating of application need much more work on operation and deployment level
Each client load only affect on its own business not others	Extra work in operation team to handle new clients
Predicable IO (network,db,logs,etc)	-
Easier customization of Application for specific tenant	-
Easier in early stages of development	-

This solution can be used with some other as a solution for Massive clients
like what Github, Microsoft or Amazon do for their enterprise level customers.

2. Infrastructure-tenancy

In this solution we use a shared infrastructure

Pros	Cons
Less cost in term of hardware	Shared Infrastructure means shared IO that could result lower Load capability
Easier to manage clients	Lower level of security that could be a drawback for some of your client
Doesn't need extra operation level works for setting up new system from scratch	Still need extra things for running application for new user
Easy customization of Application for specific tenant	-

3. Application-tenancy

In this solution only separated part of your product is the database layer;
This method has the best balance between cost/development and separation of sensitive data;

Pros	Cons
Easiest and fastest method from development perspective	Load of some bigger client could heavily affect on your other client
A good enough solution for startups	Controlling of database connection for each tenant handle in app

4. Shared-tenancy

In this method all layer of application are shared between all tenants;

Pros	Cons
Really low cost in terms of hardware	Could cause serious performance issue even in medium applications
-	could be difficult from technical perspective due to many level of access control and separation that should be handled in application layer
-	In some cases it could be in conflict with privacy rules in specially in european union
-	Could result security issues or cross tenant access

Most Important factors in choosing an Architecture are:

• Scalability

1. Number of tenants.
2. Storage per-tenant.
3. Storage in aggregate.
4. Workload.

• Tenant isolation

1. Data isolation
2. performance (whether one tenant's workload impacts others).
3. Per-tenant cost.

• Development complexity

1. Changes to schema.
2. Changes to queries (required by the pattern).

• Operational complexity

1. Monitoring and managing performance.
2. Schema management.
3. Restoring a tenant.
4. Disaster recovery.

• Customizability: Ease of supporting schema customizations that are either tenant-specific or tenant class-specific.

As Microsoft says: The tenancy discussion is focused on the data layer. But consider for a moment the application layer. The application layer is treated as a monolithic entity. If you divide the application into many small components, your choice of tenancy model might change. You could treat some components differently than others regarding both tenancy and the storage technology or platform used.

Also its good to look at this comparison;

There are really good article about this section in
ibm and
selleo.com blog

Database importance in SaaS applications

There are four major database design in SaaS applications;

• Server Instance per tenant
• Database per tenant (single instance)
• Table per tenant
• Shared Table

1. Server Instance per tenant

Every tenant gets its own hardware for database instance and code will use different connection strings, no impact to SQL

Pros	Cons
Complete physical isolation of tenant data	Cost
Control of the DB instance size based on the load exerted by the tenant	DB schema updates is much more harder than other approaches
Can have customized DB schema	-
Easier to roll out tenant specific code release	-

2. Database per tenant

Every tenant gets his schema, but runs under the same physical database server

Pros	Cons
DB level isolation of tenant data	Cost
Control of the DB instance size based on the load exerted by the tenant	DB schema updates is much more harder than other approaches
Can have customized DB schema	making coordination of code changes harder if dedicated app servers talk to the db.
Easier to roll out tenant specific code release	Will hit the system file size limits

Depend on number of tenant it this method could be the best one or the worst one;

3. Table per tenant

User something like tenant_id as prefix for each table

To be honest this method not even worthy for review due to its critical performance issues;

*_ Storing 100 directory with 100-200 file per directory could result better performance than 100 _ 100-200 file all in one directory
and because how database systems store data (for example InnoDB engine store 1~3 file per DB) you should consider your number of predicted tenant in database design

4. Shared Table

Use tenant_id in each record;
Based on your project it could be the best solution if you be careful about all the indexing and security problems;

Pros	Cons
Easy to run cross queries	No db level isolation of tenant data
Easy to manage and apply schema updates	No option to support schema changes specific to a tenant
-	mbalance of tenants can adversely affect the DB performance, creating hotspots
-	Trust the developer to provide the additional where condition

It's good to see the discussion around this topic in stackoverflow also look at this

Conclusion

These are just doors to a whole new world and you have to consider many many other factors if you want to go through each one of them.
I am still looking for the best approach for my future SAAS product and if you have any comment I would be pleased to hear them.