Scalability and Flexibility

By Dan Jeppson
—

Modern businesses run and interact with each other differently than they did 30 years for one reason—the internet and modern systems have massively transformed every aspect of businesses. Technology leverage affects everything from communications to accounting to management decisions.  Harnessing emerging technology of scalability and flexibility has become a major factor in an organization’s ability to compete effectively while considering costs, advantages, and strategic direction.  

It has taken decades for trust in internet and cloud infrastructures to be trustable, and the cloud offers tangible benefits for scalability and flexibility. Companies are managing their IT infrastructure differently than they did with traditional client-server deployments. Although larger companies might have budgets to make these moves easier, organizations of all sizes are moving to the cloud as subscription pricing and cloud resources have improved. This article is for anybody who might be resisting cloud computing for cost or utility purposes. 

The “client-server” model (on-premise servers, networking, and software) is what businesses have traditionally used since the 1990’s because of the PC revolution. Cloud Computing is a newer term that describes how computing services are delivered by an external provider.  Business and IT functions that were traditionally managed on-premise like servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence are now being deployed over the internet (“the cloud”). By taking the IT and hardware functions offsite, businesses can achieve faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale (often not even possible for most smaller organizations). Companies using cloud services can access these resources as needed and pay for them on a utility basis—rather than owning and managing their own IT infrastructure. 

1. Vertical Scalability (Scaling Up): This involves adding more resources to an existing system or replacing it with a more powerful system. One example would be dynamically increasing the CPU or RAM of a server to accommodate added workload. 
2. Horizontal Scalability (Scaling Out): This type of scalability adds more systems or servers to the existing pool, effectively distributing the workload across multiple systems. This is ideal for services that require consistent uptime and have sporadic user requirements to smooth out through load balancing. 
3. Diagonal Scalability: A combination of both vertical and horizontal scaling, diagonal scalability allows for upgrading the system’s hardware while also increasing the number of nodes. This approach provides a flexible and robust scaling solution for complex needs.

The scalability offered by cloud services addresses a range of challenges faced by traditional IT infrastructure: 

• Cost Efficiency: Small to medium-sized companies can eliminate budget lines for internal IT expenses that are shifted to the cloud environment.  This creates cost savings in payroll, HR, and in hardware and software licensing scenarios because as the need for IT grows, the scaling happens offsite, and extra oversight (both hardware and personnel) needs are mostly eliminated. 
• Improved Performance: With the ability to quickly scale resources up or down, companies can ensure that their applications and services are responsive, even under heavy load. Responsiveness enhances user experience and reduces the overall risk of downtime. 
• Agility and Innovation: Compared to on-premise installations, scalability in the cloud allows businesses to MUCH more quickly adapt to changing market conditions. They can roll out new features, stress-test different scenarios, and pivot their business models without the traditional limitations imposed by hardware constraints. 
• Global Reach: Cloud services are often spread across multiple geographic locations. This ensures that applications and services can be scaled and delivered to users around the world with minimal latency. 

Notable examples showing the impact of cloud scalability: 

• Netflix: As a pioneer in video streaming services, Netflix manages the variable demand for its content by using the scalability of cloud computing. By the scaling (adapting the capacity to meet the changing demand) of its resources based on viewer traffic fluctuations, Netflix can consistently provide smooth streaming experiences, even during peak times.
• Airbnb: As a global platform for accommodations, Airbnb uses cloud scalability to smooth surges in demand during holidays and travel seasons. This flexibility allows Airbnb to consistently support high service levels and user satisfaction while not having to pay for extra hardware at slower times. 
• Spotify: With millions of users streaming music simultaneously, Spotify relies on cloud scalability to deliver a seamless listening experience. By dynamically adjusting its resources, Spotify can manage the varying loads with ease.

Cloud computing provides various forms of flexibility that empower businesses: 

1. Resource Flexibility: Companies can quickly allocate or deallocate resources based on their immediate needs. This flexibility is crucial for businesses that experience sudden spikes in demand or need to manage temporary workloads (without having to upkeep redundant hardware that may only be needed during rare surges.) 
2. Operational Flexibility: With cloud services, businesses can deploy new applications or features rapidly. On-premise solutions typically have a much deeper life cycle (cost and time) for upgrades. 
3. Financial Flexibility: The introduction of Cloud services triggered an overall shift in different pricing models from purchase/maintenance to pay-as-you-go or subscription-based plans. New pricing structures often reduce up-front software costs, but instead shift the investment to a perpetual amount.  (Although usually lower in the beginning, as businesses scale the costs will also rise—although usually not as much as on-premise pricing rises in the similar scenarios.) 

The flexibility of cloud computing brings many advantages to businesses:

• Faster Time to Market: Because resources (hardware, software, and support personnel) are external, deployment of resources and applications are streamlined, product development cycles are shortened, and new offerings naturally flow to market faster. 
• Enhanced Collaboration: Because Cloud services are decentralized, it is natural for these tools to naturally ease collaboration among team members. Especially for remote teams or businesses with multiple locations, this inherent collaboration effect is impactful. 
• Business Continuity: When disasters happen, on-premise servers and networks (including software and databases) are at risk. Cloud services are (by nature) distributed and redundant—this ensures that businesses can continue their operations even in the face of disruptions. With features like automated backups and disaster recovery, companies can minimize downtime and improve productivity, and team members outside of disaster areas can continue business while affected areas are struggling. 
• Customization: While not all Cloud services and providers are equal, a good Cloud solution will allow a range of options for customization and integration. This flexibility can be a strong differentiator in competing for market share. 

Some ways companies are using the flexibility of cloud computing effectively: 

• Zoom: When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Zoom (as a video conferencing platform based in the cloud) suddenly and permanently experienced a massive increase in demand. The distributed layer of the cloud made work-at-home team meetings possible while other providers scrambled to catch up.  Zoom quickly scaled its infrastructure and introduced new features to meet the evolving needs of its users.   
• Slack: Slack uses the cloud (as a user delivery system and as a back-end provider) to provide flexible communication and integration options for businesses of all sizes. Combining the back end and user-experience layer in the Cloud with application integration (API) capabilities makes the solution possible. 
• Uber: Impossible without distributed applications on phones used by drivers, Uber exclusively uses cloud services to match riders with drivers efficiently. The flexibility of cloud computing allows Uber to refine its operations and deliver a seamless experience to its users using its dynamic pricing model. 

Many businesses are transitioning to the cloud, even though most businesses were slow to adapt at first. Some compelling reasons for consider making the move to the Cloud: 

On-premise systems have traditionally been a difficult cost center for many businesses to manage—it’s difficult to balance costs with IT requirements. By moving to the cloud, businesses can often reduce the need for expensive hardware and infrastructure (including upgrades and maintenance). By paying only for the resources that are used, many situations naturally result in significant cost reductions. Additionally, cloud services often include built-in security and maintenance tools that would be unavailable for on-premise deployments (reducing indirect costs related to problem and threat mitigation). 

Because of the public nature of the internet, Cloud service providers must invest heavily in security measures to protect their infrastructure and customer data. Instead of trusting internal personnel to stay up to date on emerging threats, businesses can enhance their security posture and protect their sensitive information by allowing Cloud security experts manage the environment. By leveraging the cloud-level experts, features like data encryption, access controls, and regular security updates naturally ensure that data is secure and compliant with industry regulations. 

Because most companies do not manage IT hardware farms, every change to the IT environment means additional cost and time to deploy.  When businesses adopt a cloud computing philosophy, the subscription to a cloud environment means new changes are possible without formal purchases (instead—resources are adjusted as needed.)  Businesses to respond quickly to changing market conditions and customer demands when a trusted cloud partner manages the technical details. With the ability to scale resources and deploy applications rapidly, companies can innovate faster and stay ahead of the competition.  

In addition to the innovative tools being made available (because of Cloud technologies), the ability of employees and external partners to work from anywhere and anytime is a strong reason to consider Cloud deployment.  The restrictions of an on-premise implementation disappear. 

Especially when coupled with a strong backup/recovery partner toolset, a Cloud deployment gives small businesses the ability to protect themselves in ways that previously only Fortune 500-level players could afford to implement. 

As technology continues to evolve, businesses need to actively prepare for future developments to be competitive. Cloud computing solutions offer flexible and scalable options to stay ahead of competitors. By transitioning to the cloud, businesses can position themselves to future-proof their operations by having the best tools available. 

20 years ago, Cloud computing was an emerging idea with huge resistance. As large players have emerged to provide robust Cloud computing services and software developers have increased the collaborative tools, companies have been gradually switching to a new Cloud/subscription paradigm.  Although these sorts of changes take time, we have moved from hypothetical to real-world efficiencies. 

Adopting Cloud computing isn’t just about keeping up with technology—it’s about keeping up with everybody else who is willing to use the new technology. Regardless of past experience or preferences, Cloud computing is something that must be considered.