Is Multitenancy a Prerequisite for Cloud Computing?

There is interesting and ongoing debate among cloud gurus over whether multitenancy is a prerequisite for cloud computing. Well, the debate has now made its way on the Cloud Computing forum on ebizQ. And I just had to respond with my 2 cents...

I think the answer varies by perspective. For example,

1. The cloud provider would want to maximize multi-tenancy to realize economies of scale and maximize revenue from a fixed set of assets (hardware, software, infrastructure, etc.)


2. The cautious consumer would like to minimize multi-tenancy with the most obvious reasons being security, privacy, and performance.


3. Vendors who make money from selling on premise software and hardware would like to minimize multi-tenancy to preserve their revenue streams.

Hmmmmm... I think my answer boils down to "It depends."

* Originally posted on the ebizQ Cloud Computing forum on March 9, 2010.