Index
When a company scales, it is not limited to products or the number of customers and employees. Scaling an organisation also involves scaling software systems: technology must support growth.
Scalable IT solutions allow companies to react flexibly to changes, maximising efficiency and productivity. And depending on the IT infrastructure used by the company, there are fundamental differences. While in-house server systems are generally cumbersome and inflexible in terms of scalability, scalability in the cloud is simple and fast.
How does scalability work?
Fondamentalmente, si distingue tra scalatura verticale e orizzontale. Analizziamo più da vicino entrambe le opzioni.
Vertical scaling
Vertical scaling (scale-up) increases the capacity of hardware or software by adding resources to a physical system. This can be done, for example, by adding computing power to a server to make it faster or by adding hard disks to an existing system if more storage capacity is needed.
Vertical scaling is easy to implement and is cost-effective. However, the vertical approach will eventually reach the limits of RAM and storage and more resources will have to be added to meet demand.
Horizontal scaling
Horizontal scaling (scale-out) increases performance capacity by adding more resources of the same type to the system. For example, instead of increasing the capacity of a server to improve its performance, more servers are added to the system. A load balancer helps distribute the workload over several servers according to availability. This increases the overall performance of the system.
More computing resources mean more fault tolerance and less risk of downtime. However, adding servers and load balancers can be costly. One should consider using a combination of local and cloud resources to handle the increased traffic.
Why scalability matters
Flexibility and adaptability
Being able to adapt quickly to market changes is a key advantage of scalable IT solutions. Businesses can expand or reduce their IT resources as needed, without sacrificing performance. This is especially important in sectors with highly fluctuating demand.
Controlling costs
Scalable IT solutions offer better cost control. Rather than investing in expensive hardware and infrastructure that may not be fully utilised, companies can scale as needed and optimise IT spending.
Competitive advantage
Companies using scalable IT solutions are better able to exploit new business opportunities and differentiate themselves from the competition. They can respond quickly to market trends and bring innovative products and services to market faster.
How is IT scalability used in practice?
Besides the vertical and horizontal scaling described above, there are other scaling models that are used to solve architectural scaling problems.
Load Balancers
Load balancers are essential components for the efficient distribution of requests and workloads among a set of back-end servers. Their primary function is to provide for the optimal utilisation of available resources, preventing overloads on individual servers and thus improving the resilience and availability of the system. Using this process allows IT teams to ensure that services are always active and scalable, even during traffic peaks or failures.
Among the main activities a load balancer performs are:
- Checking the availability of resources in the system and continuously monitoring their status to ensure that they are operational and able to support the workload;
- Choosing the most appropriate distribution algorithm (such as round-robin, least connections or IP hash) to balance requests across multiple servers effectively, avoiding slowdowns;
- Failover management, ensuring that if a server becomes inaccessible, the load is automatically redistributed, preserving service continuity.
Caching - Content Delivery Networks (CDN)
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) represent a strategic infrastructure to improve the speed and efficiency of access to web resources. They consist of a number of global servers that distribute static web content (such as JavaScript files, CSS, images and videos) in a uniform manner close to the end user. With this system, the content is not served directly from the main server, but from the CDN nodes closest to the user, greatly improving loading speed.
About 80 per cent of a web application may consist of static elements, and downloading this content to a CDN brings significant benefits:
- Reduced load on the main server, which can devote itself to more complex tasks;
- Increased speed and accessibility of content on a global scale, reducing latency times for users wherever they are;
- Increased availability as content is replicated across multiple nodes, reducing the risk of outages due to single failures or bottlenecks on the main network.
Microservices
Microservices are an architectural approach in which an application is broken down into a series of small independent applications, or services, each of which manages a specific functionality. Contrary to monolithic systems, microservices do not depend on each other to function, but communicate through defined interfaces, ensuring that the entire system is modular and flexible.
Once a monolithic software system grows over time, it becomes increasingly complex and difficult to maintain. Each new functionality requires changes to the core code, increasing the risk of errors and making the infrastructure less agile. In these cases, the transition to a microservices architecture can be advantageous, as it divides the system into smaller, independent components, each of which can be developed, deployed and scaled separately.
Microservices offer significant advantages in terms of scalability: each service can be scaled according to demand without affecting the others, optimising the use of resources. They also support agile development, as teams can work on several services simultaneously, accelerating the release of new functionality. This architecture is particularly useful for companies that need a flexible IT infrastructure ready to respond quickly to market changes.
For more details on the use of microservices, see our blog article ‘Monolithic architecture and microservices compared’.
Sharding
Lo sharding è una tecnica avanzata di gestione dei database che consiste nella suddivisione di un database di grandi dimensioni in unità più piccole, chiamate “shard”, per migliorare la gestibilità e le performance complessive. Ogni shard rappresenta una partizione del database principale e può essere distribuito su server diversi, consentendo di bilanciare il carico e aumentare la velocità di risposta alle query.
Con la crescita di un database nel tempo, causata da un aumento di contenuti o utenti, il volume di query e transazioni può rallentare notevolmente le risposte del sistema. Grazie allo sharding, invece, ogni shard può rispondere a una porzione specifica delle richieste, riducendo il carico su ciascun server e migliorando la scalabilità complessiva del sistema.
Questo metodo è molto efficace in scenari di database complessi e in contesti come le blockchain, dove è essenziale gestire enormi quantità di dati e transazioni. Suddividendo il database in shard, si ottengono non solo tempi di risposta più rapidi, ma anche una maggiore resilienza, poiché eventuali problemi in un singolo shard non compromettono il funzionamento dell'intero database.
Conclusion
La scalabilità IT è un fattore cruciale per le aziende che vogliono crescere in modo sostenibile e competitivo. Implementare soluzioni scalabili consente di adattarsi rapidamente ai cambiamenti del mercato, ridurre i costi operativi e migliorare l'affidabilità dei servizi offerti, il tutto contribuendo ad aumentare la capacità di gestione dei dati e delle richieste. Sia che si tratti di scalatura verticale, orizzontale, bilanciamento del carico, caching tramite CDN, architetture a microservizi o sharding dei database, ciascuna di queste strategie supporta la crescita dell’azienda, ottimizzando le performance e la resilienza dei sistemi informatici.
DevInterface può offrire un supporto essenziale per lo sviluppo di soluzioni IT scalabili e performanti. Grazie alla sua esperienza, l’azienda può aiutare a progettare e implementare architetture software ottimizzate per la crescita, scegliendo le strategie più adatte per garantire flessibilità e affidabilità. DevInterface collabora con le aziende per costruire infrastrutture in grado di evolversi con le esigenze del mercato, sfruttando tecnologie avanzate come il cloud computing, i microservizi e le reti CDN per garantire prestazioni elevate anche durante i picchi di traffico. In questo modo, le aziende possono focalizzarsi sul proprio core business, sapendo di poter contare su sistemi IT resilienti, efficaci e pronti a supportare il loro sviluppo futuro.
.jpg)
.jpg)
