Horizontal scaling in the cloud: how does this solution impact a company?

When we think about cloud computing, availability, efficiency, and cost savings are the first words that come to mind. Understand how horizontal scaling can integrate these benefits and what its applications are.

Cloud computing technologies are optimizing processes through their disruptions. One of the rising strategies is horizontal scaling . This is a scaling technique that divides the workload and data set of the system across existing servers or by adding extra servers to increase capacity as needed.

load balancer is needed : a component responsible for distributing user requests (workload) among the various systems, machines, or backend nodes in the cluster . Each of these backend runs a copy of its software and is therefore able to handle requests efficiently.

Why adopt this method?

If you plan to run your applications at an ever-increasing volume, it's beneficial to consider horizontal scaling in the cloud from the outset as part of the planning process. Since this scaling standard cannot be implemented at any time, it needs to be structured into the original architecture so that when you need to handle higher or lower traffic on your system, you won't be in trouble.

Major players providing web services, such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon, heavily utilize horizontal scaling . Among the benefits of adopting this strategy are:

• High server availability;
• Better distribution of workload across existing nodes;
• Quick scalability setup;
• Performance automation;
• Predictability of costs and workload.

Horizontal Scaling vs. Vertical Scaling: Discover the Difference Between the Techniques

Horizontal scaling involves adding or removing processing units or machines from your environment as needed. This will increase or decrease the number of nodes in the cluster , redistributing the workload among the available ones. This scaling tool has been widely used for applications that require high performance and cost control.

Some of the factors that can help determine if you need horizontal scaling are: variable processing load, industry structure, and your business objectives.

In the case of vertical scaling, the notable difference usually arises from the limitation to the capacity of a single machine because, to scale your application beyond the server's capacity, you need to increase the hardware . However, this process results in downtime and higher costs.

Scaling generates savings in infrastructure

Horizontal scaling plays a key role in resource optimization. With the importance of optimization in mind, we created Sky.Saver : a solution that helps you save up to 80% on AWS infrastructure.

The use of artificial intelligence promotes high availability, scalability, and efficiency of EC2 instances at the price of SPOT instances. With multiple layers of security and real-time monitoring, you remain in control of your application investments and savings. This information is displayed on an exclusive dashboard

There are no fixed costs, so you only pay a percentage of the amount saved, in reais (Brazilian currency). Discover our horizontal scaling! Talk to our experts and try the tool for free for 15 days. Click to learn more .

Written by Skyone