Cloud
Best Practice: Implement auto-scaling to handle variable workloads
Sep 12, 2024
Cloud infrastructure excels at dynamically scaling to meet fluctuating workloads, and auto-scaling is the key to unlocking that flexibility. Auto-scaling allows cloud resources to automatically adjust capacity in response to changing demand, ensuring that applications perform optimally during peak times and avoid wasting resources during periods of low activity. Implementing auto-scaling strategies enhances both the performance and cost-efficiency of cloud environments, making it a cornerstone of cloud architecture.
Why Auto-Scaling Matters
- Performance during peak times: By automatically adding resources when demand spikes, auto-scaling prevents performance bottlenecks, ensuring a smooth user experience.
- Cost savings during low demand: When demand decreases, auto-scaling reduces capacity, avoiding the costs of underutilised resources.
- Improved availability: Auto-scaling ensures that applications are available when users need them most, dynamically responding to increased traffic without manual intervention.
Implementing This Best Practice
- Use cloud-native auto-scaling services: Set up auto-scaling for compute resources such as virtual machines and containers using services like AWS Auto Scaling, Azure Scale Sets, and GCP Autoscaler. These tools can automatically add or remove resources based on predefined metrics like CPU usage or network traffic.
- Horizontal scaling for stateless applications: For applications that are stateless and can easily handle multiple instances, horizontal scaling (adding more instances) is the preferred approach.
- Vertical scaling for resource-intensive workloads: For applications that cannot scale horizontally, such as those with a strong reliance on shared state or database performance, consider vertical scaling (adding more resources to a single instance) to handle peak loads.
Conclusion
Auto-scaling is a critical feature for cloud applications that experience variable workloads. By implementing horizontal or vertical scaling strategies and leveraging cloud-native tools, organisations can ensure their applications are both highly available and cost-efficient, without the need for manual intervention during traffic spikes.
