Hosted Architecture
Hosted architecture options for contact centers appear to be divided between either multi-instance or multi-tenant:
- Multi-instance is where multiple customers run their own separate instance of applications and operating system on their own separate virtual machine, but the hardware is being used by other customers.
- Multi-tenant has several customers all using the same instance of the applications and operating systems on the same hardware.
As you’d expect; each has their strengths and weaknesses. The multi-instance version enjoys greater security as it is partitioned off from the other tenants using that service provider. Any problems experienced by another tenant should therefore stay isolated. Likewise, updates can be performed at times more suitable for the tenant rather than having to fit in to a grand schedule that updates everyone at the same time. However, there are likely to be cost implications due to the extensive hardware required to accommodate the multi-instance format and the increased operational costs associated with it.
On the other hand, the multi-tenant version can be less expensive due to the sharing of hardware and reduced resource required to perform updates and overall contract management. But all tenants would have to take updates at the same time and be subject to outages as hardware improvements and scaling required. Customers need to think long and hard as to whether this reduced cost is justifiable. For many, it is. But for some, the risk of possible security breaches and the disruption for their end customers, is not worth even a minute of consideration.
However, a different architecture is emerging; one that is modular and uses services that are small and focus on doing small tasks only. This type of architecture makes replacing any service simple and localised without impacting or disrupting the larger environment. This new ‘micro-services’ architecture will provide resilience against server and network node failure, thereby providing customers with a truly cloud-hosted contact center solution. If you want to know more drop us an email.
