ELASTICITY AND
SCALABILITY
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ELASTICITY AND SCALABILITY
CLOUD ELASTICITY:
• Cloud Elasticity: Elasticity refers to the ability of a cloud to automatically
expand or compress the infrastructural resources on a sudden up and down
in the requirement so that the workload can be managed efficiently. This
elasticity helps to minimize infrastructural costs.
• Example: Consider an online shopping site whose transaction workload
increases during festive season like Christmas. So for this specific period of
time, the resources need a spike up. In order to handle this kind of
situation, we can go for a Cloud-Elasticity service rather than Cloud
Scalability. As soon as the season goes out, the deployed resources can
then be requested for withdrawal.
CLOUD SCALABILITY:
• Cloud Scalability: Cloud scalability is used to handle the growing
workload where good performance is also needed to work efficiently
with software or applications. Scalability is commonly used where the
persistent deployment of resources is required to handle the workload
statically.
• Example: Consider you are the owner of a company whose database
size was small in earlier days but as time passed your business does
grow and the size of your database also increases, so in this case you
just need to request your cloud service vendor to scale up your
database capacity to handle a heavy workload.
• It is totally different from what you have read above in
Cloud Elasticity. Scalability is used to fulfill the static
needs while elasticity is used to fulfill the dynamic
need of the organization. Scalability is a similar kind of
service provided by the cloud where the customers
have to pay-per-use. So, in conclusion, we can say that
Scalability is useful where the workload remains high
and increases statically.
TYPES OF SCALABILITY:
• 1. Vertical Scalability (Scale-up) –
In this type of scalability, we increase the power
of existing resources in the working environment
In an upward direction.
2. Horizontal Scalability:
In this kind of scaling, the resources are added
in a horizontal row.
• 3. Diagonal Scalability –
It is a mixture of both Horizontal and Vertical scalability where
the resources are added both vertically and horizontally.
COMPARISON BETWEEN ELASTICITY AND
SCALABILITY IN CLOUD COMPUTING:
1. Meaning:
• Elasticity: Automatically adjusts resources up or down based on the current demand.
• Scalability: The ability to handle more demand over time by adding more resources.
2.How it Works:
Elasticity: Resources change quickly and automatically when needed, like
adding or removing servers.
Scalability: Resources are planned and increased over time to handle more
users or traffic.
3. Time:
• Elasticity: Happens fast, in real-time when traffic goes up or down.
• Scalability: Happens gradually, over a longer period.
4. Cost:
• Elasticity: Helps save money by only using resources when needed.
• Scalability: May cost more because resources are added ahead of
time, even if they’re not always needed.
5. When Used:
Elasticity: Used when demand changes quickly, like during a sale or viral
event.
• Scalability: Used when expecting steady, long-term growth, like increasing
the number of users.
6. Main Focus:
• Elasticity: Focuses on saving costs by adjusting resources as
needed.
• Scalability: Focuses on preparing the system for future
growth.
7. Setup:b6
• Elasticity: Automatically adjusts resources without much
setup.
• Scalability: Needs planning and design to grow as demand
increases.
