Horizontal Scaling
Horizontal scaling, also known as scaling out, is a method of increasing system capacity by adding more machines or nodes to a distributed system, rather than upgrading the hardware of existing machines. It involves distributing workloads across multiple servers or instances to handle increased demand, improve performance, and enhance fault tolerance. This approach is commonly used in cloud computing and microservices architectures to achieve scalability and reliability.
Developers should learn and use horizontal scaling when building applications that need to handle high traffic, ensure high availability, or support elastic growth, such as web services, e-commerce platforms, or data-intensive systems. It is particularly valuable in cloud environments where resources can be dynamically provisioned, allowing for cost-effective scaling based on demand without downtime. This concept is essential for designing resilient systems that can recover from failures and maintain performance under load.