Auto Scaling software dynamically allocates or deallocates computing resources based on an application’s requirement. This type of software can automatically scale up resources during high traffic and scale down when there is less traffic. IT administrators use auto scaling software to ensure the availability of cloud systems by adding more computing resources when needed and optimizing costs by automatically decommissioning instances when capacity requirement reduces.
Auto scaling has some features of cloud infrastructure monitoring software as it continuously monitors systems to check for resource usage. However, auto scaling software, in addition to monitoring, can also increase or decrease capacity allocation. It also has features that overlap with load balancing software, a tool that distributes traffic to healthy server instances to ensure continuous availability. Load balancing and auto scaling software working in tandem provide efficient management of resources. Auto scaling software provides new instances for which load balancing software can provide connections.
To qualify for inclusion in the Auto Scaling category, a product must:
Continuously monitor the cloud environment to identify capacity needs and free resources
Allocate and deallocate new instances if an application requires more or fewer resources
Anticipate demand fluctuations based on regular resource consumption patterns
Provide visibility into resource consumption across the system through a single dashboard or portal
