In information technology, the term “tenant” refers to the highest level of authority in an IT system. In other contexts, it is also referred to as “multi-client capability.” It is the logical unit under which the users, applications and data of an organizational unit are grouped and managed. In terms of data and organization, a tenant is a self-contained unit within a system that contains data. Comparable to a server. If several tenants share the provider’s computing power, it is referred to as “multi-tenant”; if there is only one user, it is referred to as “single-tenant”.
However, a tenant is not necessarily the same as a corporate customer. Within a company, there can be several tenants for different organizational units. Yet several companies in a group can also work in a single group-wide tenant.
This is often compared to a house, with each tenant representing an individual apartment. The tenants can decide which users they give a key to and thus grant access, and they may also determine the features and the look and feel. The operator, acting as the landlord, provides maintenance services in the background.
However, a tenant can only be customized to a limited extent in terms of look and feel, possible rule sets, or permissions - and scalability is also very expensive.