If you’re in the market for a Learning Management System (LMS) for your organisation, you’re probably very familiar with many of the options, features and services available to you. In today’s global workplaces and dispersed teams, most organisations are seeking to bring onboarding, training and compliance management together in a centralised system – while still keeping their departments, campuses or divisions separate. If that’s what you need too, then a multi-tenant Learning Management System is a great fit for your organisation. But, what exactly is multi-tenancy?
Multi-tenancy or multi-tenant architecture
The basic definition of multi-tenancy, according to Gartner, is “a mode of operation of software where multiple independent instances of one or multiple applications operate in a shared environment.” In short, this means that a single instance of a software application serves multiple tenants or users.
A common way to explain multi-tenancy compared to single-tenant environments is the Building analogy. In single-tenant applications, each user or customer owns a whole building, including elevator, common areas and all facilities inside. In multi-tenant applications, each customer is a tenant within the building: they own their own flat, which is exclusively for them and only they can access, as well as customise it the way they want, but they share the common areas and services with other tenants.
In the case of multi-tenant software, the different tenants share the application and one single database, but each tenant’s data is completely isolated and private, not jeopardising the security and privacy of data and information.
Benefits of Multi-tenant Learning Management Systems
When it comes to Learning Management Systems, a multi-tenant LMS enables you to host more than one learning environment (tenant) inside a single software installation. In Moodle Workplace, for example, a single installation allows you to host several separate eLearning sites or tenants, keeping them as entirely isolated entities with their own users, structure and look and feel.
Many kinds of organisations benefit from a multi-tenant learning management system: from global companies with branches worldwide to government organisations with distinct departments, higher education institutions with several campuses or companies whose departments have separate learning needs and goals. Why do these organisations choose a multi-tenant LMS like Moodle Workplace?
Cost effective
Having one system for multiple divisions or departments rather than buying a separate one for each decreases the cost of set up and maintenance including updates and upgrades, which are done at installation level and automatically pushed out to each of the tenants.
Personalised learning
Multi-tenant architecture enables you to have a separate full LMS for each of your multiple departments, campuses or organisations. Each of these platforms can have its own branding and organisational structure, so you can tailor them to each tenant’s learning objectives.
Shared resources
Giving each of your divisions or departments a different LMS does not mean you can’t share content between tenants. Some multi-tenant LMS, like Moodle Workplace, allow you to have a shared space to distribute courses or other entities across tenants.
Central control with delegated LMS management
With a multi-tenant LMS, you can also give custom permissions to different users in separate tenants, which allows you to have a different eLearning manager for each of your branches, departments or franchises.
Consolidated reporting
By having all your departments, divisions or teams in the same database, you can not only generate separate reports for each tenant, but also aggregate data from several tenants in your reports.
Quick deployment
When working with a multi-tenant LMS, launching a new learning environment is faster than with a single-tenant LMS, since your main software installation is already up and running.
Moodle Workplace is a customisable multi-tenant LMS that enables you to streamline onboarding and workplace learning. Find out more about Moodle Workplace.
