Create a multi-company portal

Question

Hi all
I´m currently inmersed in the design of a new SharePoint portal for multiple companies (SharePoint 2013 Enterprise). The main idea is to have the same structure for all companies (lists, librarys, public views, ...) but separate the contents (the ítems created
by a certain user only can be read/modified by users of the same company).
I see three ways to achieve this:
1) Using item targeting audiences, but it implies that the destination audience for each new ítem must be filled on ítem creation (too much work for users).
2) Using an ítem event receiver who assings ítem level permissions to each new ítem according the user group, but this implies performance issues in large lists.
3) Using 'Variation sites' like a multi-language site, but I´ve never worked with this feature and i don´t know if is it valid for this.
Which is best? Any other workaround who fill better my requirements?
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

I guess I like none of the options.
1) Not a security feature, but you've mentioned items created by a certain user only be read/modified by users of the same company.
2) Has significant impact on SharePoint performance, and makes the system harder to understand, I feel this option is bad design.
3) Meant for creation copies of content that need to be translated in another language.
Why don't you just use the identical structure lists, libraries, views etc, but use separate folders for each company with separate security settings for each company. That way, each company user only sees the stuff relevant for him/her, if you like  you
can use views to obscure the use of folders and you can avoid event receivers or workflows.
Kind regards,
Margriet Bruggeman
Lois & Clark IT Services
web site: http://www.loisandclark.eu
blog: http://www.sharepointdragons.com