SAP has created a multitenant version of its Business One ERP (enterprise resource planning) suite, which will be sold exclusively through partners as Business One OnDemand, the company is expected to announce next week.
Multitenancy is a software architecture commonly used by SaaS (software as a service) vendors, wherein multiple customers share the same instance of an application, but with their corporate data locked away from each other. This allows for operational cost savings over traditional hosting, and provides the ability to apply general product upgrades to many customers at once.
“It’s great to see that SAP realises that multitenancy is an important part of a cloud solution,” said analyst Ray Wang, CEO of Constellation Research. “True multitenancy gives customers the lowest-cost delivery model and the quickest way to consume innovation.”
SAP partners have already been selling Business One in hosted form. Last year, SAP instituted a policy change that made it easier for those companies to offer hosted Business One via subscription pricing. SAP is encouraging partners to sell Business One OnDemand by subscription as well, according to a statement.
The engineering work on the multitenant version is complete, and it will become available from partners in the second quarter, according to SAP spokeswoman Angelika Pfahler.
Only SAP-certified hosting partners will be able to offer the application directly, although resellers that lack such qualifications can subcontract with a certified company, SAP said.
Business One will continue to be available through traditional hosting and in on-premises form, under perpetual license agreements.
