Tag Archive for: Cloud Computing

Why multitenancy matters for EHS software as a service (SaaS)

Why multitenancy matters for EHS software as a service (SaaS)

Despite the fact that multitenancy is a distinction that has been around for a very long time, even in 2025, there is a considerable degree of confusion in the EHS software space when it comes to the importance of multitenancy. That confusion may be intentionally perpetuated by EHS software companies that are unable to support multitenancy. We will try to clarify its importance here.

EHS software vendors that are not engineered for multitenancy make wild claims to prospective customers. For example:

  • They might claim multitenancy is a “techie” thing that doesn’t need to be part of the conversation, or
  • They might say anything to make the sale, such as “sure, we can do multi-tenant, single tenant, whatever you need!”

Unfortunately, those vendors simply do not understand what they are talking about.  Multitenancy is a major shift in computing and requires an all-new approach to software architecture and delivery models.  It is transformational, and customers who intend to buy the next generation of EHS software should take the time to understand the real meaning and importance of multitenancy.

Multitenancy is the core foundation of SaaS in the EHS market and beyond

Multitenancy is the core foundation of modern SaaS, and it shouldn’t be taken lightly, generalized, or massaged into something that suits a vendor’s self-serving interpretation of a SaaS model.  Having experienced the true benefits of multitenant SaaS first-hand, I can’t fathom how SaaS would have delivered those benefits if it hadn’t been multitenant. It’s not a trivial attribute that vendors can make optional — it’s fundamental to the offering.  For example, imagine companies like Salesforce, Google, or Amazon offering a “single-tenant” solution side-by-side with their multitenant clouds?  One could argue that a company offering a single-tenant solution cannot be a serious contender in offering multi-tenant SaaS.

I would also add that single-tenant (hybrid) cloud applications are worse than on-premise installments.  Why?  Because they are fake clouds.  In these instances, a customer is, in fact, outsourcing maintenance of their application to a vendor that is not equipped for that maintenance.  No single vendor in the EHS software industry is large enough to undertake maintenance of the single-tenant infrastructure on behalf of their customers, regardless how inexpensive hardware may be at the time.

There are many ways to take the functions of on-premise installed software model of the 1980s and package them as services.  Some of these service delivery modes, such as ASP, single-tenant hosting, and hybrid clouds, merely relocate and reassign long-standing problems. They might even make them worse.  In a single-tenant model, user customizations may infiltrate throughout the stack in a way that makes it difficult to upgrade the performance of the stack.  The true SaaS models confront and mitigate (or even eliminate) the most vexing elements of software installation and maintenance:

  • configurability on the fly,
  • software maintenance, and
  • upgrades.

It is “a tyranny of software upgrades” that kills the single-tenant model.

An analogy for multitenancy vs single tenancy: AC/DC (but not the rock band)

Let me offer a simple analogy to drive home the point as to why multitenancy matters: Tesla vs. Edison and the War of Currents.

The War of Currents was a series of events surrounding the introduction of competing electric power transmission systems in the late 1880s and early 1890s. It pitted companies against one another and involved a debate over cost and convenience of electricity generation and distribution systems, electrical safety, and a media/propaganda campaign. The main players were the direct current (DC) based on the Thomas Edison Electric Light Company and the supporters of alternating current (AC) based on Nikola Tesla’s inventions backed by Westinghouse.

With electricity supplies in their infancy, a lot depended on choosing the right technology to power homes and businesses across the country.  The Edison-led group argued for DC current that required a power generating station every few city blocks, like the single-tenant model. In contrast, the AC group advocated for a centralized generation with transmission lines that could move electricity great distances with minimal loss (multitenant model).

The lower cost of AC power distribution and fewer generating stations eventually prevailed.  Multitenancy is the equivalent of AC when it comes to cost, convenience, and network effect.  You can read more about how this analogy relates to SaaS in the book by Nicholas Carr, “Big Switch,” a Wall Street Journal bestseller. It’s “the best read so far about the significance of the shift to cloud computing,” said Financial Times.

The impact on EHS, ESG, and water programs

Given these fundamental differences between different modes of delivering software as a service, it is clear that the future lies with the multitenant model. While Locus has been pioneering the use of multitenancy in the EHS software space for years, most vendors have been laggards.

Whether all customer data is put onto one database or onto multiple databases is of no consequence to the customer.  For those arguing against it, it is like an assertion that companies “do not want to put all their money into the same bank account as their competitors.” In reality, those companies are putting their money into different accounts at the same bank.

When customers of a financial institution share what does not need to be partitioned, such as the transactional logic, database maintenance tools, security, and physical infrastructure and insurance offered by a major financial institution, then they enjoy advantages of security, capacity, consistency, and reliability that would not be affordably deliverable in isolated parallel systems.

In enterprise cloud applications and cloud application platforms, multitenancy yields a compelling combination of efficiency and capability without sacrificing flexibility or governance.

When a software provider seeks to blur the distinctions between one technology and another, there’s usually just one reason: they are unable to offer the superior technology to their customers, and they hope to persuade their customers that real differences are not relevant to their needs.  Multitenant platforms for enterprise on-demand applications represent genuine opportunities for customer advantage.  The reality of multitenant differentiation is acknowledged by authoritative industry analysts such as Gartner and other analyst firms.

Hosting models that do not leverage multitenancy don’t belong in the same discussion as the value proposition implied by the term, “SaaS”.  Multitenancy is a difference that makes a difference.

 

Why SaaS multitenancy is key to successful and sustainable EHS management

A recently published survey by a research analyst firm indicates that 90 percent of EHS software applications installed today are single-tenant on customer premises or single-tenant, vendor hosted.  Only 10 percent are multitenant, vendor-hosted. In other words, most of the vendors in the EH&S space do not run a single version of their software maintained at one location. Instead, they run multiple copies at a single or multiple locations, with the high likelihood that these multiple copies are not alike, but instead represent multiple versions or contain specific customizations for individual customers. This model is crushing their growth and scalability potential.

Locus delivers EHS+S SaaS solutions as highly scalable, Software as a Service (SaaS) application and platform services on a multitenant technology architecture. Multitenancy is an architectural approach that allows Locus to operate a single application instance for multiple organizations, treating all customers as separate tenants who run in virtual isolation from each other. Customers can use and customize an application as though they each have a separate instance, yet their data and customizations remain secure and insulated from the activities of all other tenants. Locus multitenant services run on a single stack of hardware and software, which is comprised of commercially available hardware and a  combination of proprietary and commercially available software. As a result, Locus can spread the cost of delivering EHS SaaS services across user base, which lowers the cost for each customer. Also, because Locus does not have to manage thousands of distinct applications with their business logic and database schemas, we believe that we can scale our business faster than traditional software vendors. Moreover, we can focus our resources on building new functionality to deliver to customer base as a whole rather than on maintaining an infrastructure to support each of their distinct applications.

Multitenancy also allows for faster bug and security fixes, automatic software updates and the ability to deploy major releases and frequent, incremental improvements to Locus’ services, benefiting the entire user community. Our services are optimized to run on specific databases and operating systems using the tools and platforms best suited to serve customers rather than on-premise software that must be written to the different hardware, operating systems and database platforms existing within a customer’s unique systems environment. Locus developers build and support solutions and features on a single code base on our chosen technology platform. Locus efforts are focused on improving and enhancing the features, functionality, performance, availability and security of existing service offerings as well as developing new features, functionality, and services.

Locus customers and third-party developers can create apps rapidly because of the ease of use of Locus Platform and the benefits of a multitenant platform. Locus provides the capability for business users to configure applications easily to suit their specific needs.

Also, Locus multitenant cloud platform makes it possible to use a remarkably small number of servers as efficiently as possible. When organizations move business applications to Locus, they can significantly reduce their energy use and carbon footprints compared to traditional on-premises or single-tenant or ASP solutions

Locus built and maintains a multitenant application architecture that has been designed to enable service to scale securely, reliably and cost effectively. Locus’ multitenant application architecture maintains the integrity and separation of customer data while still permitting all customers to use the same application functionality simultaneously.

Both Locus and its data centers providers hold independent  AICPA SOC1 (SSAE16)  and SOC2 certification.

Quality Water — A new look at the tap

As an environmental software and services company, we work closely with companies that need to follow Federal, State and Local compliance mandates to ensure the status quo of the environment.  One market segment that always amazes me is drinking water. Every single day, public water systems test your tap water.

Everyday single day, water is collected, tested, analyzed and reported to internal public water teams, and less frequently, external agencies.   Today we announced that San Jose Water Company, that serves more than one million people in the Silicon Valley region, has selected Locus for our environmental software and mobile app solution, EIM and Locus Mobile.  The deployed systems consolidates and manages San Jose Water’s field data collection; water compliance and water quality data; and all its environmental compliance and environmental data.  SJWC will also use the Locus EIM to manage its environmental permits for all its sites and facilities.

Want to learn more about water?  Check out these resources:

​View the 6-minute TedTalk “It’s time to put water first” by Heather Himmelberger from the University of New Mexico, Director of the Southwest Environmental Finance Center at the University of New Mexico.

For more information, please visit www.drinktap.org.

 

Locus’ Intellus Site Creates Big Data Transparency in the Cloud; Millions of Environmental Data Records are Now Publicly Available

Through the Locus EIM platform public facing website, Intellus, the general public can now access remediation and environmental data records associated with the Office of Environmental Management’s (EM’s) legacy nuclear cleanup program.

Containing more than 14 million records, Locus’ Intellus has consolidated Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL’s) information that was previously handled in multiple independent databases. The centralized, cloud-based solution directly attributed to an estimated $15 million in cost savings for LANL through 2015.

The public facing site also ensures users have real-time access to the most recent data. The same data that scientists and analysts use to base important environmental stewardship decisions off of. Through tools and capabilities such as automated electronic data validation, interactive maps, and the ability to include data from other third-party providers and environmental programs, Intellus provides the ultimate platform to view LANL’s environmental data without compromising the core EIM system that LANL scientists use on a daily basis.

Locus has always advocated for the power of data transparency via the cloud. When you apply the most extensive security protocols to a cloud-based system, it can be a winning combination for data management and public trust.

10 Critical Requirements for Environmental Cloud Applications: No. 1: True Multitenancy

We’ve been talking about the importance of multitenancy for more than a decade. As corporations start considering software budgets for 2026, there’s new interest in the topic of multitenancy and why it matters for EHS, ESG, and water data management. With that in mind, we’ve updated one of our earlier educational posts on the topic.

There is considerable debate in the marketplace about whether organizations should care about multitenancy. The truth is that multitenancy is the only proven SaaS delivery architecture that eliminates many of the problems created by the traditional software licensing and upgrade model, so it is extremely valuable to know whether a provider uses a multitenant architecture or something else. A provider should be able to answer this question with a simple “yes” or “no,” and prove its answer. Any vague or conditional responses are a clear indication that the answer is “no.”

Multitenancy ensures that every customer is on the same version of the software. As a result, no customer is left behind when the software is updated to include new features and innovations. A single software version also creates an unprecedented sense of community where customers and partners share knowledge, resources, and learning. Smart managers work with their peers and learn from them and what they are doing. Multitenancy offers distinct cost benefits over traditional, single-tenant software hosting. A multitenant SaaS provider’s resources are focused on maintaining a single, current version of the application, rather than spread out in an attempt to support multiple software versions for customers in parallel — a practice that isn’t sustainable, let alone efficient. If a provider isn’t using multitenancy, they may be hosting thousands of single-tenant customer implementations. Trying to maintain that is too costly for the vendor, and those costs, sooner or later, become the customers’ costs.

Multitenancy requires a new architectural approach. You have to develop applications from the ground up for multitenancy; otherwise, extensive work is required of the vendor to alter the on-premises application and underlying database for multitenancy, resulting in an even more complex, and potentially high-maintenance, application.