Database Scalability
Database scalability refers to the ability of a database system to handle increasing amounts of data, transactions, or users without compromising performance or availability. It involves strategies and techniques to expand capacity, such as adding more hardware resources or optimizing data distribution, to meet growing demands in applications like e-commerce, social media, or IoT systems. This concept is critical for ensuring that databases can support business growth and maintain responsiveness under load.
Developers should learn about database scalability when building or maintaining applications that expect high traffic, large datasets, or rapid growth, such as web services, mobile apps, or enterprise systems. It is essential for preventing bottlenecks, reducing downtime, and improving user experience by enabling databases to scale horizontally (adding more servers) or vertically (upgrading existing hardware). Use cases include scaling read-heavy workloads with replication, handling write-intensive operations with sharding, or managing big data in distributed environments.