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Many ISVs deliver their Windows applications through remote application platforms such as Citrix, Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS), Omnissa Horizon, or similar technologies. These platforms allow the application to run centrally while customers connect remotely to access it.

There are several ways ISVs structure the supporting identity environment. Some providers deploy a separate Active Directory for each customer, which simplifies isolation but can become operationally heavy as the number of customers grows. Others operate a shared Active Directory environment, using organisational units, groups, and delegated permissions to separate tenants. While this improves scale, it also requires careful configuration to ensure customers remain isolated and administrative access is controlled.

As platforms expand to support more customers and users, managing identities, tenants, and access manually often becomes a significant operational burden. Atria helps ISVs automate and standardise these processes, allowing customer tenants, users, and permissions to be managed consistently across the platform while maintaining proper isolation between customers.

Active Directory was not originally designed to operate as a multi-tenant identity system, but with careful design it can be configured to support platforms where many customer organisations share the same directory infrastructure.

In these environments, ISVs typically operate a shared Active Directory domain and separate customers using organisational units, groups, and delegated administration. Consistent tenant structures and naming conventions are important so that identities and permissions remain clearly separated as the platform grows.

A shared directory also provides important operational advantages. Infrastructure can be consolidated and operated efficiently — for example, a small number of domain controllers can support tens of thousands of users while still providing strong performance and redundancy.

However, multi-tenant Active Directory environments require careful configuration. Changes to permissions or visibility rules can unintentionally break operating system or application behaviour that relies on standard directory access patterns.

Platforms such as Atria help ISVs manage multi-tenant Active Directory environments in a structured and predictable way, allowing tenant boundaries, user management, and delegated administration to scale as the platform grows.

In hosted ISV platforms, user accounts are typically managed within Active Directory or synchronised from a customer directory. Creating users, resetting passwords, and managing group memberships are routine tasks that must be performed for each tenant.

In many environments these requests are handled through helpdesk tickets. End customers or consulting partners request changes such as adding users or resetting passwords, and support engineers perform these actions on behalf of the customer within the shared directory environment.

To reduce operational workload, ISVs often introduce self-service tools, scripting, and automation. However, many identity management platforms are designed for single-organisation environments and do not adapt well to the multi-tenant structure used by hosted ISV platforms.

Solutions such as Atria help ISVs automate user lifecycle management and directory synchronisation across tenants, reducing helpdesk workload while allowing customers and partners to safely manage routine user operations.

As the number of customers grows, hosting Windows applications involves managing tenants, users, and ongoing operational processes across the platform. Tasks such as onboarding new customers, managing user access, supporting partner requests, and maintaining accurate billing and licence compliance can quickly create significant workload for support teams.

By default, these activities are typically handled through helpdesk processes. Customer or partner requests are submitted as tickets, and support engineers perform the required changes within the hosting environment.

To scale efficiently, ISVs often introduce automation, standardised tenant structures, and delegated administration so that routine operational tasks can be performed safely without constant helpdesk involvement.

Platforms such as Atria help automate tenant provisioning, user lifecycle management, partner administration, and licence tracking, allowing ISVs to operate large multi-tenant environments while significantly reducing day-to-day operational effort.

Many ISVs distribute their applications through consulting partners who implement and support the solution for end customers. In hosted environments, these partners often need to perform operational tasks such as onboarding new customers, managing users, and supporting the organisations they work with.

In many platforms these requests must still be submitted to the ISV helpdesk. Partners raise support tickets and ISV administrators perform the required changes on their behalf within the hosting environment.

A scalable platform allows partners to manage their own customer tenants while remaining restricted to the environments assigned to them. In some ecosystems this also includes reseller hierarchies, where parent partners manage multiple customer organisations and can delegate operational access further to their own customers.

Atria provides structured delegated administration for multi-tenant environments, allowing partners to add, view, and manage their customers themselves. Partners only see the customers assigned to them and can safely delegate appropriate administration to end-customers where required.

ISVs delivering Windows applications typically use remote application platforms that allow the application to run centrally while customers connect remotely.

Citrix is widely used in many hosted environments. Omnissa Horizon is also used, particularly where VMware infrastructure or bundled licensing is already in place.

Other platforms are gaining traction. Parallels RAS and Inuvika OVD have seen growing adoption in hosted environments due to their simpler deployment models and competitive pricing.

Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) can also be used to deliver Windows applications. However, AVD typically requires infrastructure to operate within the customer’s Azure tenant, which makes it extremely difficult for ISVs to run and automate a shared multi-tenant hosting platform where the infrastructure is owned and operated by the ISV.

ISVs face significant operational challenges managing tenants, users, partners, and ongoing platform operations across these environments. Atria works alongside any delivery platform, helping automate tenant provisioning, user lifecycle management, partner administration, and operational processes across the hosted platform.