What Is Horizontal Scaling?

If you've ever wondered about the difference between vertical and horizontal scaling, we're here to help! The term "horizontal scaling" is used in many IT setups. The basic meaning of horizontal scaling is that systems are "built out" using additional components. By contrast, "vertical scaling" means adding extra capability and resources to one member. For example, if you're running a website with tons of traffic and getting bogged down, you might scale horizontally by adding more servers to handle the load. If you have a single application that needs more power but doesn't need any additional processing power or memory, you might vertically scale by upgrading your server hardware. So now you know! Both approaches can be helpful for any business, but they have very different implications for the company's bottom line. Vertical scaling involves upgrading to more powerful hardware with a hefty price tag. In contrast, horizontal scaling involves linking hardware, which is less expensive; companies often need hardware configurations on hand to switch over to less costly options when network traffic decreases; at the same time, many IT departments use some form of redundancy, and it's often recommended with horizontal scaling because it can help smooth out load spikes that might occur when increasing the amount of hardware in a single node. Redundant data storage is often necessary for horizontal scaling because consistency is usually required. Each node must remain in sync with the other and end-users with a distributed system. So here It's a bird, a plane, and horizontal scaling! Horizontal scaling is one of the most popular IT strategies for organizations of all sizes. Why? As you don't need to upgrade your hardware or software whenever you want to add more capacity. You create more nodes and spread them across multiple servers—or even in various data centers. It's simple, cost-effective and scalable.