In today’s dynamic business and tech environments, the process of managing and provisioning resources does not often follow a set path. The same holds true when it comes to the cloud. Once you make a shift to it, you cannot stick with a singular, fixed environment as then you will either fail in managing things when workloads experience peaks and incur unnecessary costs when workloads go below average.
So what’s the solution to this? It’s easy, scalability! It’s already one of the most guiding forces behind the large scale of adoption of the cloud by businesses in recent times.
But why is cloud scalability so valued? Well, the answer lies in the lethargic nature of scalability experienced when managing an in-house data center. When you need more resources, you first prepare the demand set, then contact your supplier for the required equipment, it then delivers it in days or weeks or sometimes even months and then your engineers have to plug it all up and incorporate it with the existing infrastructure. This will not only waste an incredible amount of time but also make you incur a huge cost, rendering the issue of scalability with on-site resources quite redundant.
On the flip side of this, can you do without scalability? Of course not, especially with reference to the highly volatile demand churns that firms experience these days. Imagine if suddenly there is an influx of users on your site and the resources running it are not enough to manage the load. So what will happen? Your users will experience a wide range of issues ranging from error messages to loading time issues. This can be disastrous for your business so there is no other option than to induct scalability in to your business resources.
Cloud Scalability – The Best Resource For Creating Redundancy And Managing Demand:
So now that you know that without enough scalability, your users will experience issues. But why do you choose the cloud for it. Well, first you need to understand one thing about scalability and that is that during it, every part of your application will need to expand or detract. From your compute resources to your database resources, everything will require scaling, and the cloud is the only place where this can be successfully accomplished.
Which Scaling Strategy To Deploy?
Before you opt to scale, you need to know what to scale and how to do it. Conventionally, there are two strategies that are followed when it comes to this. First is vertical scaling and the second is horizontal scaling. Here’s the difference between the two:
Vertical Scaling, simply put, is when you change the existing resource you are using and shift to one that has larger capacity to cater to the same configurations. From compute to memory to servers, you can replace anything in this strategy. Top cloud service providers like AWS or Azure make following this strategy very easy as in them, you just need to change the instance size. They have this possibility available in majority of their services so whether you have a VM and need to change a server for that or require a change in the database, you can successfully accomplish it.
The horizontal scaling strategy comes into play when you want to reduce the workload on your existing resources. In it, you pull in additional servers or servers while also retaining the existing ones so that the workloads are more evenly balanced. Whereas in vertical scaling, you required changing instances, here you bring in additional instances.
As for the question as to which approach is more suitable, the answer is that both of them are appropriate depending on the kind of requirement you have in hand. Horizontal scaling is more popular is at allows you to ensure that the requests your instance gets are easy for it to manage. You can do this by limiting the amount of requests your server gets to accomplish this. Some businesses also use vertical scaling, but due to some it’s disadvantages like the need to take off your instance from work till the time a new one fulfills its place, it’s used lesser by businesses than horizontal scaling.
Three Ways To Get Scaling Done In a Cloud Environment:
Know that you understand the types of scaling you can opt for, you now need to understand the ways in which it can be accomplished.
There are three ways for it:
Manual Scaling:
This is very simple to understand as during manual scaling, you actually need to manually denote to the system on which and how many resources to add or reduce based on your requirements. While the function isn’t quite difficult to get done itself as there is no complicated procedure for it and you just need to just add or reduce through pushing buttons, the downsides to it are quite high. For e.g. manual scaling can be prone to human error and it’s also inefficient when it comes down to managing the high amount of fluctuating needs that come in in real time.
Scheduled Scaling:
Again, this is just what it sounds like. You schedule the kind of resources you require and the time on which you require them and the system does the rest of the job. It’s much more efficient than manual scaling but still, forecasting demand can be prone to risk at times making this approach a bit risky. For e.g. you might have forecasted that you will get fewer traffic after midnight and appropriated fewer resources for the time, but the application experiences a sudden influx and the resources are unable to manage the rise in demand due to limited capabilities.
Automatic Scaling:
Finally, we come to the most optimized form of scaling i.e. automatic scaling. In this, the system itself automatically scales resources up or down, acting on a set of rules you have provided to it. For e.g. you set a policy that if a certain number of requests are exceeded, a new server is to be added. Once the systems sees this metric, it will act accordingly. Automatic scaling ensures your application is always performing at an optimum level and never has to make the user face any issues.
Wrapping Things Up:
Scaling is not just cost effective but also makes your application more efficient, thus making scaling one of the most important business considerations in today’s time. And while there are specifically dedicated cloud computing certifications to it, it’s always suggested to learn cloud computing courses online before sitting in the certifications exam. If you are just starting your career, joining cloud computing bootcamp can help you a lot. You will also need to do your own research for devising the best scaling techniques and appropriate them according to your business requirements in order to reap the best results moving forward.