Patent ID: 8843648
Filing Date: 2014-09-23
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method, performed in a multi-tenancy environment, for permitting a first tenant to provide services to a second tenant by specifying access permission that enables the second tenant to access the first tenant's resources and/or data, the method comprising: hosting a multi-tenant service in a multi-tenancy environment, the multi-tenant service hosting a first and a second tenant; receiving at the management console identity criteria for a user or group of users of the second tenant that desire access to the first tenant's resources and/or data of the multi-tenant service without requiring the user or group of users of the second tenant to become users of the first tenant; creating at the management console an external access object that is associated with the first tenant; mapping at the management console the external access object to the user or group of users of the second tenant based on the identity criteria such that the external access object represents the user or group of users of the second tenant when the user or group of users access the multi-tenant service such that the user or group of users appear as a user or group of users of the first tenant when accessing the multi-tenant service to thereby enable the user or group of users to access the multi-tenant service as if the user or group of users of the second tenant were a user or group of users of the first tenant; and at the management console, associating the external access object which has been mapped based on the identity criteria used to associate the user or group of users from the second tenant with a set of the first tenant's resources and/or data of the multi-tenant service so that the user or group of users of the second tenant can access the associated set of resources and/or data.