Systems and methods for accessing a shared space in a provider-tenant environment

• US 20070156650A1
• Filed: 12/30/2005
• Published: 07/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Becker, Wolfgang
• Granted Patent: US 7,689,593 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

The present invention discloses methods and systems for hosting tenants in a computer-based environment in which a provider stores a shared data structure. Each of the tenants may store shared-metadata referencing the shared data structure, while a first tenant may store a tenant-specific data structure specific to the first tenant for access by the first tenant. Based on the shared-metadata and in response to a data request from the first tenant, the system may the query the provider or the first tenant for requested data and provide the requested data based on the querying.

Claims

1. A method for hosting, at a provider, a plurality of tenants over a network, comprising:

storing, at the provider, a shared data structure;

storing, at a first tenant of the plurality of tenants, a tenant-specific data structure specific to the first tenant for access by the first tenant;

storing, at each of the plurality of tenants, shared-metadata referencing the shared data structure;

querying, based on the shared-metadata and in response to a data request from the first tenant, at least one of the provider and the first tenant for the requested data; and

providing the requested data based on the querying.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein storing shared-metadata further includes:

storing, at the first tenant, shared-metadata defining an attribute of at least one of the shared data structure and the tenant-specific data structure.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

querying, based on the attribute, the provider and the first tenant for the requested data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing, at a second tenant of the plurality of tenants, a tenant-specific data structure specific to the second tenant for access by the second tenant;

storing, at the provider, the tenant-specific data structure specific to the first tenant and the tenant-specific data structure specific to the second tenant; and

wherein storing the shared-metadata further includes generating the shared-metadata based on the data structures stored at the provider.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein querying further comprises:

querying the provider if the attribute indicates the requested data structure is a shared data structure; and

querying the first tenant if the attribute indicates the requested data is a tenant-specific data structure.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein querying further comprises:

querying the provider if the attribute indicates the requested data structure is a stored at the provider; and

querying the first tenant if the attribute indicates the requested data is stored at the first tenant.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the attribute indicates whether a particular data structure is shared by the plurality of tenants or specific to the first tenant.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating, by the provider, the shared-metadata based on data structure changes at the provider.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

enabling the first tenant to have read-only access to the shared data structure.

10. A system, comprising a provider, a network, and a plurality of tenant servers, wherein the provider comprises:

means for storing, at the provider, a shared data structure;

means for storing, at a first tenant of the plurality of tenants, a tenant-specific data structure specific to the first tenant for access by the first tenant;

means for storing, at each of the plurality of tenants, shared-metadata referencing the shared data structure;

means for querying, based on the shared-metadata and in response to a data request from the first tenant, at least one of the provider and the first tenant for the requested data; and

means for providing the requested data based on the querying.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the provider further comprises:

means for storing, at the first tenant, shared-metadata defining an attribute of at least one of the shared data structure and the tenant-specific data structure.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the provider further comprises:

means for querying, based on the attribute, the provider and the first tenant for the requested data.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the provider further comprises:

means for storing, at a second tenant of the plurality of tenants, a tenant-specific data structure specific to the second tenant for access by the second tenant;

means for storing, at the provider, the tenant-specific data structure specific to the first tenant and the tenant-specific data structure specific to the second tenant; and

wherein the provider further comprises means for storing the shared-metadata by generating the shared-metadata based on the data structures stored at the provider.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the provider further comprises:

means for querying the provider if the attribute indicates the requested data structure is a shared data structure; and

means for querying the first tenant if the attribute indicates the requested data is a tenant-specific data structure.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the provider further comprises:

means for querying the provider if the attribute indicates the requested data structure is a stored at the provider; and

means for querying the first tenant if the attribute indicates the requested data is stored at the first tenant.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the attribute indicates whether a particular data structure is shared by the plurality of tenants or specific to the first tenant.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the provider further comprises:

means for updating, by the provider, the shared-metadata based on data structure changes at the provider.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the provider further comprises:

means for enabling the first tenant to have read-only access to the shared data structure.

19. The system of claim 10, wherein the provider further comprises:

means for enabling a tenant to access the at least one shared data structure and means for forbidding the tenant from writing data to the provider.

20. A method for hosting, at a provider, a plurality of tenants over a network, comprising:

storing, at the provider, a shared data structure;

storing, at each of the plurality of tenants, shared-metadata referencing the shared data structure;

querying, in response to a data request from one of the plurality of tenants, the provider for the stored shared data based on the shared-metadata; and

providing the requested data based on the querying.