Scalability: the greatest benefit of cloud computing

If you look up the term "scalability" in the dictionary, you probably won't find it. This word is an adaptation from the English language, which designates the ability of a system to expand without loss of performance. 

And because it's widely used in technical areas of the IT sector, it has become a neologism in Portuguese. In recent years, this term has certainly appeared in your search results, being directly related to the benefits of the cloud.

scalability is , as well as show how it makes the cloud even more attractive to businesses . Stay with us and see how this benefit can boost your business!

What is cloud scalability?

Cloud scalability is the characteristic of a system that indicates its ability to handle an increasing workload uniformly; in other words, the infrastructure's capacity to meet a growing demand for data usage in the cloud.

Theoretically, we can define scalability as the characteristic of a system that indicates its ability to handle an increasing workload in a uniform manner ; in other words, the infrastructure's capacity to meet growing usage demand.

But how do we supply it? 

Simply by optimizing infrastructure resources, aiming to obtain maximum machine performance. Any company, regardless of its size, should be concerned with this issue.

Have you considered the possibility that your company might lack the efficiency and speed to handle growth? This results in the loss of significant business opportunities due to altered conditions. 

Therefore, when building your IT infrastructure, think of scalability not as an additional feature, but as a necessity . Having virtualized systems and working with cloud models will certainly meet your company's growing storage needs, giving it a competitive advantage.

Since the cloud aims to make everything easier to use, there's also the possibility of using auto-scaling . This is a feature that allows the size of your cloud services to increase or decrease automatically, based on predefined situations.

Finally, we need to go through the two forms of scalability, which are:

• Vertical scalability , which involves having a component with more capacity or that is faster to handle a higher workload; and
• Horizontal scalability , which consists of adding more functional components to distribute the processing load.

But why is scalability one of the main benefits of the cloud for businesses?

According to Mike Small, a member of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), scalability is the greatest benefit of cloud computing . He says that companies can reduce costs and gain access to the latest technologies.

But for your data to be successfully migrated to the cloud, it's necessary to establish a good level of governance, mainly to prevent security breaches and manage identities and access.

The main factors of concern, and what generally leads IT organizations to adopt monitoring initiatives, are the stringent legal or contractual requirements related to data storage and security. And alongside the virtualized model, security must always be implemented to guarantee the safety of important information.

Learn more about data security and LGPD by listening to episode #5 of Sky.Cast, the Sky.One podcast!

Data security and LGPD (Brazilian General Data Protection Law)

Therefore, if you rely on professional cloud computing, which helps you leverage the resource with all the necessary security, you will have the following advantages:

An optimized way to manage IT

Previously, IT infrastructure management involved centralized, physical control of computing facilities. But with the rise of the cloud, IT is undergoing changes to meet the growing demands of the corporate market. 

Managing this scalable structure also faces challenges in redefining a model for its monitoring in a hybrid environment, encompassing both traditional IT and virtualized/cloud environments.

The greater the expansion, the fewer the resources

With climate change occurring on the planet, environmentalists talk a lot about the conscious consumption of natural resources. In the field of technology, the intelligent use of IT infrastructure is one of the main focuses. 

Today, scalability provides the concept of virtual, rather than physical, elastic growth of the data center. This allows companies to increase their capacity and performance without experiencing downtime or incurring costly upgrades, while also benefiting from space savings, equipment consolidation, and reduced energy consumption.

Other benefits of scalability in the cloud

As one of the highlights of the cloud, scalability is a key point for the success of this resource. The possibilities that your business finds in the cloud go even beyond management and cost savings, which are already paramount in themselves.

Here are two more benefits in this regard:

Flexibility to handle peak demand

In the workplace, we rarely have constant demand all the time, especially if you're in retail. Scalability allows your capacity to adapt to meet momentary needs, such as increasing cloud storage space during holidays and special occasions.

Improved system performance

There is also a gain in the performance of your systems, which can have more capacity and faster processing. Whether by dividing your workload across multiple virtual machines (horizontal) or improving a single one (vertical), your applications will perform better with scalability.

Discover Auto.Sky

Scalability can be a great ally for your company, but it's essential to know when and how it should be implemented. For this – as with general cloud usage – partnering with a reliable company is the best way to ensure maximum productivity.

With Auto.Sky you can take advantage of the best of the cloud, from migrating your resources to managing them in the cloud. By using our service, you will have:

• Scalability to meet your demands;
• availability to access your resources anywhere, anytime;
• cost reduction in hardware, software and IT personnel;
• Automatic updates and maintenance
• Cybersecurity with best-in-class cloud protection measures;
• cost predictability ; and
• Multi-cloud , allowing you to combine the best available services.

Auto.Sky offers 3 different services:

1. Auto.Sky Platform : for migrating applications and data, with fast and transparent scalability and per-user payment.
2. Auto.Sky Services : which improves costs for those already in the cloud, with support and management of environments and workload migration.
3. Auto.Sky Business One : to migrate your SAP B1 to the cloud, with integrated add-ons.

To learn more about scalability, cloud computing, or our solutions, why not talk to one of our experts ?

Written by Skyone