Title

AWS re:Invent 2023 - SaaS deep dive: Inside a scalable, efficient multi-tenant architecture (SAS304)

Summary

Todd Golding, a solutions architect at AWS, discusses building scalable and efficient multi-tenant SaaS solutions on AWS.
The session emphasizes the importance of going beyond basic solution functionality to consider scale, resilience, and efficiency in a SaaS context.
Key considerations for SaaS architects include high availability, cost efficiency, predictability, support for various deployment models, and the ability to cater to different market segments.
The talk covers the need to think broadly about scaling, including onboarding, operations, and deployment.
It highlights the importance of choosing the right compute and storage technologies based on workload profiles and business requirements.
The session discusses different deployment models (pooled, siloed, full stack silo) and how they impact scaling strategies.
Todd introduces the concept of "pods" as a scaling unit and the potential use of different AWS services and instance types for optimized scaling.
The importance of onboarding and deployment processes in the scaling strategy is stressed.
Resilience is discussed in terms of controlling tenant load, ensuring tenant isolation, and having visibility into system operations.
The session concludes with the importance of validating scale and resilience through chaos engineering and testing.

Multi-tenancy adds complexity to scaling and resilience, requiring architects to consider the unique challenges of shared resources and varying tenant demands.
There is a constant tension between achieving cost efficiency and ensuring scalability and resilience in a SaaS environment.
The choice of compute and storage technologies should be driven by the specific needs of different tenant workloads and business goals, rather than personal preferences.
Deployment models must be flexible to accommodate different customer requirements, including the possibility of full stack silo deployments for premium customers.
Throttling and tiering are essential for managing tenant load and ensuring that no single tenant can adversely affect the performance or availability of the system for others.
Onboarding and deployment processes are critical components of a SaaS solution's scalability and resilience and must be designed to handle varying loads and potential failures.
Tenant isolation is a key aspect of SaaS resilience, and architects must ensure that tenants cannot access each other's data or resources.
Validation of scale and resilience should not be an afterthought; it is crucial to test and prove the effectiveness of these strategies before deployment.
The use of AWS services like Lambda, API Gateway, and EKS can provide scalability and resilience benefits, but they must be configured and managed correctly to meet the demands of a multi-tenant SaaS environment.