Horizontal vs Vertical Scaling
Vertical Scaling (Scale Up)
Add more power to existing machines - more CPU, RAM, storage.
Horizontal Scaling (Scale Out)
Add more machines to distribute the load.
Comparison
| Aspect | Vertical | Horizontal |
|---|---|---|
| Complexity | Simple | Complex |
| Cost | Expensive hardware | Commodity hardware |
| Limit | Hardware ceiling | Nearly unlimited |
| Downtime | Required for upgrade | Zero downtime |
| Fault Tolerance | Single point of failure | Redundancy built-in |