What term applies to multiple customers using the same public cloud?

The term that applies to multiple customers using the same public cloud is "Multitenant." This concept refers to the architecture where a single instance of a software application serves multiple tenants, or customers, who share the same infrastructure and application resources. Each tenant has a unique and separate data environment while sharing the same software and underlying hardware. This model is efficient for public cloud services because it allows for economies of scale, lower operational costs, and efficient resource utilization.

In contrast, virtual refers to the abstraction of physical resources, dedicated implies exclusive use of resources for a single customer, and hybrid combines elements of both public and private clouds but does not specifically address multi-customer scenarios. Therefore, the term multitenant accurately describes the shared access and usage characteristic of public cloud environments.