
Any app or system can handle a set number of simultaneous requests or a set quantity of network traffic.
Yet, if exceeded, your server could crash, or your service quality could suffer.
So, what can you do to avoid this? You can scale your system!
This concept refers to how systems or applications grow or shrink to adapt to changes and demand.
On growth, there are two options: vertical and horizontal scaling.
Before, we covered everything you need to know about horizontal scalability.
Now, it's vertical scalability's turn!
We'll explain how it works, its pros and cons, and how it compares to horizontal scalability.
Are you ready to plunge in?
Vertical scaling—or scaling up—adds resources to an existing node, computer, or server.
Here, the load spreads between the CPU and RAM resources of the system.
Replacing your server with a more powerful one is also considered vertical scaling.
The main goal is to improve performance.
In this scenario, you can scale up memory, speed, storage, or other capabilities.
When it comes to cloud computing, the same concept of vertical scalability applies.
The scaling of networking, processing, and memory happens in-cloud servers instead of on-premises.
Some providers offering vertical scalability options include AWS and Azure.
Besides manual and scheduled, cloud scaling has added benefit of automatic scaling.
There are some things to notice if you decide vertical scaling is the right choice for you:
Now that we know vertical scalability, it's time to meet its counterpart.
Horizontal scalability—or scaling out— entails adding more nodes to a system so you can cope with new demands.
Here, several resources share the workload. Examples of vertical scalability are Amazon RDS and MySQL.
Meanwhile, horizontal scaling tools enclose MongoDB, Cassandra, and Google Cloud Spanner.
So, what else sets these two scaling methods apart?
In the table below, we'll look at their main differences.
Although often seen as opposites, vertical and horizontal scalability can work together!
In fact, this is what big companies do.
When they scale out, they also scale up by choosing more powerful machines than their existing one/s.
As a result, you get the best of both worlds.
On the one hand, you get the resilience and limitless scalability of horizontal scaling.
Also, you benefit from vertical scaling's speed and consistency.
At some point, all tech businesses will face the scalability issue.
In this context, vertical scalability is excellent if you are on a tight budget and want to save some trouble.
We hope this article gave you all the needed info to decide if vertical scaling is the right choice for you!

Any app or system can handle a set number of simultaneous requests or a set quantity of network traffic.
Yet, if exceeded, your server could crash, or your service quality could suffer.
So, what can you do to avoid this? You can scale your system!
This concept refers to how systems or applications grow or shrink to adapt to changes and demand.
On growth, there are two options: vertical and horizontal scaling.
Before, we covered everything you need to know about horizontal scalability.
Now, it's vertical scalability's turn!
We'll explain how it works, its pros and cons, and how it compares to horizontal scalability.
Are you ready to plunge in?
Vertical scaling—or scaling up—adds resources to an existing node, computer, or server.
Here, the load spreads between the CPU and RAM resources of the system.
Replacing your server with a more powerful one is also considered vertical scaling.
The main goal is to improve performance.
In this scenario, you can scale up memory, speed, storage, or other capabilities.
When it comes to cloud computing, the same concept of vertical scalability applies.
The scaling of networking, processing, and memory happens in-cloud servers instead of on-premises.
Some providers offering vertical scalability options include AWS and Azure.
Besides manual and scheduled, cloud scaling has added benefit of automatic scaling.
There are some things to notice if you decide vertical scaling is the right choice for you:
Now that we know vertical scalability, it's time to meet its counterpart.
Horizontal scalability—or scaling out— entails adding more nodes to a system so you can cope with new demands.
Here, several resources share the workload. Examples of vertical scalability are Amazon RDS and MySQL.
Meanwhile, horizontal scaling tools enclose MongoDB, Cassandra, and Google Cloud Spanner.
So, what else sets these two scaling methods apart?
In the table below, we'll look at their main differences.
Although often seen as opposites, vertical and horizontal scalability can work together!
In fact, this is what big companies do.
When they scale out, they also scale up by choosing more powerful machines than their existing one/s.
As a result, you get the best of both worlds.
On the one hand, you get the resilience and limitless scalability of horizontal scaling.
Also, you benefit from vertical scaling's speed and consistency.
At some point, all tech businesses will face the scalability issue.
In this context, vertical scalability is excellent if you are on a tight budget and want to save some trouble.
We hope this article gave you all the needed info to decide if vertical scaling is the right choice for you!