Isolating tenants executing in multi-tenant software containers

An apparatus for security isolation of tenants executing in a multi-tenant software container, the apparatus comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereupon which, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to
• receive a request to access a tenant of the multi-tenant software container from a client external to the multi-tenant software container, the multi-tenant software container executing on a virtual machine hosted by the apparatus and individual ones of one or more of the tenants having a separate access policy that defines components that are authorized to access a tenant,
• determine whether a trusted identity is required to perform the requested access to the tenant of the multi-tenant software container,
• in response to determining that a trusted identity is required to perform the requested access, determine whether to grant the request for access received from the client external to the multi-tenant software container based at least in part on an access policy for the tenant and a trusted identity that is associated with the client and is received with the request to access the tenant, and
• in response to determining that a trusted identity is not required to perform the requested access, grant the request to access the tenant of the multi-tenant software container.

A computer-implemented method for security isolation of tenants executing in a multi-tenant software container, the method comprising:

• associating a trusted identity with the tenants executing in the multi-tenant software container, the multi-tenant software container executing on a virtual machine hosted by a host computer;
• generating an access request from a first tenant executing in the multi-tenant software container to access a component, the access request comprising the trusted identity associated with the first tenant;
• and
• determining whether to grant the access request generated by the first tenant based at least in part on an access policy for the component and the trusted identity associated with the first tenant, the access policy defining other components that are authorized to access the component.