US Patent 11232078 Multitenancy using an overlay file system

Example methods and systems are directed to multitenancy using an overlay file system. Each tenant has one or more users and a tenant layer in the overlay file system. Each user has a user layer in the overlay file system. The overlay file system provides a logical file system to each user based on the user layer, the tenant layer, and a strategy comprising a set of application layers. A first user shares a file with other users of the same tenant by moving the file from the first user's user layer to the tenant layer. After the file is moved, all users of the tenant have access to the file. The moving of the file is achieved by modifying metadata for the file.