Variability modeling to support customization and deployment of multi-tenant-aware Software as a Service applications

TLDR

Software as a Service (SaaS) enables providers to host multiple tenants on shared infrastructure, but to attract many customers it must be customizable to meet each tenant’s functional and quality needs. This study proposes using variability modeling from software product line engineering to systematically derive customization and deployment information for individual SaaS tenants. The authors employ explicit variability models to generate tenant‑specific customization and deployment data, evaluate the approach on a meeting‑planning application, and show how existing deployments inform new tenant deployments.

Abstract

More and more companies are offering their software by following the Software as a Service (SaaS) model. The promise of the SaaS model is to exploit economies of scale on the provider side by hosting multiple customers (or tenants) on the same hardware and software infrastructure. However, to attract a significant number of tenants, SaaS applications have to be customizable to fulfill the varying functional and quality requirements of individual tenants. In this paper, we describe how variability modeling techniques from software product line engineering can support SaaS providers in managing the variability of SaaS applications and their requirements. Specifically, we propose using explicit variability models to systematically derive customization and deployment information for individual SaaS tenants. We also demonstrate how variability models could be used to systematically consider information about already deployed SaaS applications for efficiently deploying SaaS applications for new tenants. We illustrate our approach by a running example for a meeting planning application.