DevOps Interview DropAdvanced TierScenario+50 XP on read
When would you scale vertically instead of horizontally?
#Performance#Architecture#Scaling#Cost Optimization
Core Summary
Vertical scaling (bigger machine) is the right choice when you are hitting a hard limit on a single resource that does not parallelize: database connections, in-memory cache size, a single-threaded bottleneck, or network bandwidth on the node itself. Horizontal scaling (more machines) is right when you can split the work. The answer changes based on what is saturated and whether it partitions.
Hints
Hint 1: Vertical when the bottleneck is not parallelizable
Hint 2: Horizontal when you can shard the data or split the traffic
Hint 3: Some systems force a choice — databases are harder to scale horizontally than stateless services
Reported in interviews at Amazon, Google, Twitter