Sharepoint Multi Tenancy and Host Name Site Collection

     Multi-tenancy refers to a principle in software architecture where a single instance of the software runs on a server, serving multiple client organizations (tenants). Multi-tenancy is contrasted with a multi-instance architecture where separate software instances (or hardware systems) are set up for different client organizations. With a multi-tenant architecture, a software application is designed to virtually partition its data and configuration, and each client organization works with a customized virtual application instance. Multi-tenancy is also regarded as one of the essential attributes of cloud computing.

The term multi-tenancy in SharePoint comes up if we are planning to host Sharepoint for different clients. Creating a large number for web applications causes resource problems. In such a scenario the best approach for companies hosting Sharepoint would be to opt for Host Named Site Collection (HNSC). I have already posted in detail on Host Named Site Collection (HNSC).

Hosting a Sharepoint environment for multiple tenants was a challenge before HNSC.This was because on the limitations on the number of web applications, managing site collections, data isolation problems and URL name space issues.

With HNSC it is now possible to have "vanity URLs" for site collections. For example ,we could have www.fahad.com for one site collection and www.sharepoint.com on another - all in the same Web application.

But at the same time there are few things we need to be aware of. HNSC do not support alternate access mappings and are therefore always considered to be in the default zone. Moreover, host headers cannot be applied at the Web application (IIS site) level, and doing so makes it impossible to access host-named site collections (IIS tends to ignore requests that does not match host binding).

Related Post : Implementing Host Named Site Collection