Vertical Scaling
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
Vertical scaling means making your existing server bigger — more CPU, more RAM, more disk. Instead of adding more cashiers, you give the one cashier super powers. It has limits (you can't add infinite RAM to one machine) and usually requires downtime. Old-school but sometimes the right answer.
Real Talk
Vertical scaling (scaling up) increases capacity by upgrading existing instances to a larger instance type with more CPU, RAM, or storage. It's simpler than horizontal scaling but has upper limits, often requires downtime, and creates single points of failure. Suitable for stateful workloads that can't be distributed.
When You'll Hear This
"We vertically scaled the database from db.t3.medium to db.r5.xlarge." / "You can only vertically scale so far before hitting the hardware ceiling."
Related Terms
Auto Scaling
Auto scaling is when the cloud automatically adds more servers when traffic spikes and removes them when it drops, so you're not paying for idle machines a...
EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)
EC2 is AWS's way of renting you a virtual computer in the cloud. You pick how powerful it is, what OS it runs, and pay by the hour.
Elasticity
Elasticity is the cloud's ability to stretch when you need more resources and shrink when you don't — automatically and instantly.
Horizontal Scaling
Horizontal scaling means adding MORE servers to handle load instead of making your server bigger. Got too much traffic?
On-Premise
On-premise (or 'on-prem') means your servers physically live in YOUR building — not in Amazon's warehouse.
RDS (Relational Database Service)
RDS is Amazon's managed database service.