Cloud Computing
Elasticity
Definition
In cloud computing, elasticity is the ability to automatically and dynamically increase or decrease compute, storage, or networking resources to match changing demands, without worrying about capacity planning and engineering for peak usage.
Why It Matters
Elasticity is a core benefit of the cloud. It ensures that you have enough resources to handle peak load, but also that you are not paying for idle resources during quiet periods. It is the key to both performance and cost-efficiency.
Contextual Example
A news website experiences a huge traffic spike when a major story breaks. An elastic cloud architecture would automatically add more web server instances to handle the load. As traffic subsides, those extra instances are automatically terminated.
Common Misunderstandings
- Elasticity is often confused with scalability, but they are different. Scalability is about designing a system to handle more load, while elasticity is the mechanism for automatically adding or removing resources in a scalable system.
- It is a key feature of "auto-scaling" groups.