Question: Data Partioning between customers

Here is a quick design question I have about a new project:

My client needs a database application that they plan to market to several customers. My client will run the application as a service where customers can network in and access _only_ their data. I've been requested to come up with a fail proof way to ensure that the my client's customers can only see the data they are authorized to see.

At first blush, I designed the tables to support an unique key that included my client's customer identifier. This allows our team to always use a extra condition in the where clause for all operations to isolate the data. On the down side, this results in a painful denormalization that I am not happy about.

I've been pondering about the use of different instances, yet I am not sure about licenses or performance.

Do you have an alternative that I should explore?

What are your experiences? Received on Mon Aug 19 1996 - 00:00:00 CEST