Scalability in Cloud Computing

by Oliver J. Digital Marketing Professional

Scalability in terms of cloud computing is capable of handling the growth of a Cloud, the database, and the connecting network. Cloud computing is studied to be scalable when we talk about world’s economic growth in the years to come. Scalability in terms of the economy, grows relying on data being stored on a cloud which should be able to increase data storage capacity with increasing data generation. Scalability refers to the concept in which all application of infrastructure can be extended to efficiently handle increasing load.

Systems have four general areas that scalability can apply to:

1. Storage unit

2. RAM unit

3. Network interface

4. Processing unit

Types of Scaling:

There are mainly 2 types of scaling:

Horizontal scalability aka down scaling is the ability to increase capacity by linking various hardware/software units such that they can work as a single logical unit. When servers are clustered together, the original server scales horizontally. If the cluster requires more resources to enhance performance & provide immense availability, the admin can scale by adding more servers to that bunch. An important advantage of horizontal scalability is that it can provide administrators with the ability to increase capacity on the fly.

Vertical scalability furthermore, increases capacity by adding more resources, such as more RAM or additional processor. Scaling vertically, which is also called scaling up, usually requires downtime while new resources are being added and has limits that are defined by hardware.

Scalability Benefits- Pay for what you need

Scalability in literal sense, can be regarded more as an artefact similar to gas or electricity. For instance during summer, we don’t use much of either so the bills are low, whereas during winter, we use more of each, as a result the bills are higher. The key benefit of Cloud its cost efficiency. You can pick the amount of bandwidth you need and only pay depending on your usage of a cloud host. Surprisingly the cost can be as little as pennies for the hourly basis. Pay for what you use can also be elaborated using this simple example: If a website or online business applications aren’t used, it wouldn’t be charged. The cloud driven business model has shifted from buying server and other resources that aren’t really needed, but just in case if you would need them, you can only use the resources needed and only when you need them. Scalability allows enterprises to add a processor to a server, or even increase the number of processors used, and then restore a server to its original configuration when increased activity has shrunk. All this came at a cost, but not a permanent cost called pay-per-use.

The Future is Scalable-

· Cloud computing is projected to increase from $67B in 2015 to $162B in 2020 attaining a CAGR (Compound annual growth rate) of 19%. -- Forbes

· Gartner’s report said that India’s IT spent has increased to a whopping $71 Billion in 2016, which is 6% increase from 2015.

· According to a report by Gartner predicted that Cloud Computing will take a major share of investments in 2017, and this is proved to be true.

· A survey by Veritas states that over 70 percentage of enterprises has the belief that cloud is no more ‘optional’ for companies to remain competitive.