Recently, Patrick Reames of ComTech Advisory posted an excellent blog entry on ctrmccenter.com, Sorting through the terminology of CTRM deployment.
Patrick does a very thorough job of explaining the various flavors of cloud-based ETRM / CTRM solutions. In his conclusion, Patrick says: “
Some would argue that a multitenant, fully cloud capable SaaS solution is the way to go…providing scalability at a lower cost and with seamless upgrades.”
Almost all the ETRM / CTRM systems out there now are touting their cloud capabilities. However, many of these are not built on a multi-tenant architecture and hence, cannot give their users the full spectrum of benefits of a true SaaS solution:
Ready to use: Multi-tenant software is architected for instant use.
Among other things, this includes having a well populated and maintained set of reference data that is required in any ETRM / CTRM.
Always up-to-date: Since there is only one version of the software, all clients are on the same and the latest version of the software, which includes all of the fixes and improvements.
No upgrade projects ever!
Scalable/elastic: A multi-tenant solution gives user the ability to easily scale up and down as their business needs require it. A single tenant deployment typically includes some fixed resources and cannot easily (let alone, automatically) scale.
Higher quality: A multi-tenant solution typically provides a much higher quality of software and service as there is only one version of the software to test and maintain.
Secure by design: Multi-tenant systems are designed from the ground up to ensure complete segregation and security of client data. Solutions that are built for single-tenant deployment tend to ignore security at the software architecture/design level with the assumption being that security can be achieved by a closed physical infrastructure (not the case in the cloud).
So, the next time you are talking to an ETRM / CTRM vendor and you are confused by all their “cloud-hosted, cloud-enabled, cloud-native, built-for-the-cloud” mumbo-jumbo, you have to ask them only one question:
“Is your solution built on a multi-tenant architecture?”
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