Scalability in Cloud Computing

Table of contents:

1. Introduction
2. Scaling in cloud computing
3. Advantages of Scaling
4. Types of Scaling
5. Conclusion

Introduction:

Among the many reasons to make the move to the cloud, scalability is one of the most
compelling. What is scalability in cloud computing? Scalability is the ability to easily add or subtract
compute or storage resources. Horizontal and vertical scaling in cloud computing makes it easier for
enterprises to provision the right number and size of resources without the overhead of running a
data centre.

The true definition of scalability has to do with meeting demand. Demand can change
seasonally, weekly, and hourly. In a real-world IT environment, demand isn’t steady, and scalability is
the best option to manage this volatility.

Cloud scalability refers to the ability to increase or decrease IT resources (virtual machines,
databases, networks) as needed to meet changing needs. Scalability is one of the main advantages
of the cloud and the main driving force for its popularity in businesses

A scalable cloud architecture is made possible through virtualization. Unlike physical

machines whose resources and performance are relatively set, virtual machines virtual machines
(VMs) are highly flexible and can be easily scaled up or down. They can be moved to a different
server or hosted on multiple servers at once; workloads and applications can be shifted to larger
VMs as needed.

Third-party cloud providers also have all the vast hardware and software resources already
in place to allow for rapid scaling that an individual business could not achieve cost-effectively on its
own.

Scaling in cloud computing:

Scalability in cloud computing is

 Ability to increase or decrease IT resources as needed to meet changing demand

 Data storage capacity, processing power and networking can all be scaled using existing
cloud computing infrastructure
 Scaling can be done quickly and easily, typically with little to no disruption or down time
 Third-party cloud providers have all the infrastructure already in place

Systems have four general areas that scalability can apply to:

 CPU
 Disk I/O
 Memory
 Network I/O

The below picture depicts the Cloud Technology Moving Trends in the Industry
Advantages of Scaling:

1. Convenience
 Saves precious time for IT staff by cutting down the hours and days of time to set up
physical hardware
 Often with just a click, IT Admin can easily setup most of infrastructure needs like
VM’s, servers
2. Flexibility and Speed
 Handles unexpected spikes in demand easily and makes your system respond very
quickly using load balancers
 Storage management is simple and more reliable

3. Cost Saving
 Business can avoid the upfront costs of purchasing expensive equipment
 Business pays for only what they use and minimize waste
 Maintaining secondary data centres are not required

4. Disaster Recovery
 scalable cloud computing can reduce disaster recovery costs by eliminating the need
for building

Cloud scalability versus cloud elasticity

Cloud providers can offer both elastic and scalable solutions. While these two terms sound
identical, cloud scalability and elasticity are not the same.

Elasticity refers to a system’s ability to grow or shrink dynamically in response to changing

workload demands, like a sudden spike in web traffic. An elastic system automatically adapts to
match resources with demand as closely as possible, in real time. A business that experiences
variable and unpredictable workloads might seek an elastic solution in the public cloud.

A system’s scalability, as described above, refers to its ability to increase workload with
existing hardware resources. A scalable solution enables stable, longer-term growth in a pre-planned
manner, while an elastic solution addresses more immediate, variable shifts in demand. Elasticity
and scalability in cloud computing are both important features for a system, but the priority of one
over the other depends in part on whether your business has predictable or highly variable
workloads.

Types of Scaling:
Scaling can be categorized into three major types in cloud computing based on the
approach that was followed while upgrading or downgrading service. Below are the types of
scaling techniques that were commonly used in industry

 Horizontal Scaling
 Vertical Scaling
 Auto Scaling
1. Horizontal Scaling
To scale horizontally (scaling in or out), you add more resources like virtual machines to
your system to spread out the workload across them. Horizontal scaling is especially
important for companies that need high availability services with a requirement for minimal
downtime.
Benefits of horizontal scaling
Horizontal scaling increases high availability because as long as you are spreading your
infrastructure across multiple areas, if one machine fails, you can just use one of the other
ones.
Because you’re adding a machine, you need fewer periods of downtime and don’t have
to switch the old machine off while scaling. There may never be a need for downtime if you
scale effectively.

And here are some simpler advantages of horizontal scaling:

 Easy to resize according to your needs
 Immediate and continuous availability
 Cost can be linked to usage and you don’t always have to pay for peak demand

2. Vertical Scaling:
Through vertical scaling (scaling up or down), you can increase or decrease the capacity
of existing services/instances by upgrading the memory (RAM), storage, or processing
power (CPU). Usually, this means that the expansion has an upper limit based on the
capacity of the server or machine being expanded.
Advantages of Vertical Scaling:
 No changes have to be made to the application code and no additional servers need
to be added; you just make the server you have more powerful or downsize again.
  Less complex network – when a single instance handles all the layers of your
services, it will not have to synchronize and communicate with other machines to
work. This may result in faster responses.
 Less complicated maintenance – the maintenance is easier and less complex
because of the number of instances you will need to manage.

3. Auto Scaling:

Auto scaling, also referred to as autoscaling, auto-scaling, and sometimes automatic

scaling, is a cloud computing technique for dynamically allocating computational resources.
Depending on the load to a server farm or pool, the number of servers that are active will
typically vary automatically as user needs fluctuate.

Auto scaling and load balancing are related because an application typically scales
based on load balancing serving capacity. In other words, the serving capacity of the load
balancer is one of several metrics (including cloud monitoring metrics and CPU utilization)
that shapes the auto scaling policy.

Auto Scaling Advantages:

 Better fault tolerance: Auto-scaling helps in determining and detecting which of the
instances present on the server is unhealthy. Once established, the unhealthy
instance is quickly terminated, and another healthy instance is sent as a replacement
for the unhealthy one.

 Better availability: Auto-scaling helps in ensuring that the application has the right
amount of capacity for handling the current traffic demand
  Better cost management: Auto-scaling can dynamically increase and decrease the
capacity as required. With auto-scaling, one can launch instances when needed and
also terminate these when they are not required.

Conclusion:

Creating a fully scalable system and infrastructure can be a large task that requires
planning, testing, and more testing. If you already have an application in place, splitting up
that system can be a problematic process that may require code changes, software updates,
and more monitoring. Several organizations are moving towards innovative auto scaling
approach, and it became most happening thing
Auto Scaling monitors your applications and automatically adjusts capacity to
maintain steady, predictable performance at the lowest possible cost. Auto Scaling helps
end users/customers to provide better user experience while using the application
References:
https://www.vmware.com/topics/glossary/content/cloud-scalability.html/
https://www.stormit.cloud/blog/scalability-in-cloud-computing-horizontal-vs-vertical-scaling/
https://www.javatpoint.com/scaling-in-cloud-computing/