Scalability = Operational Flexibility
Scalability is a systems characteristic which enables a platform hosting a system to automatically muster additional computing resources as the system workload increases.
In a cloud world, a scalable system is a system which is able to automatically provision additional computing resources such as processor, memory and bandwidth as the demand for computing resources from the hosted system increases.
Scalability meets user expectations
Users interacting with online services expect systems to be perpetually available, function at peak performance levels and have a user interface design which is aesthetically pleasing, intuitive and simple to use.
Scalability’s purpose as a feature of online services is to ensure a system is able to function at the performance levels expected by its users.
Scalability and its impact on availability
Downtime in an online world is not good for business. Ensuring systems availability has multiple real-world business benefits which impact the profitability and brand reputation of an organisation.
In today’s business world, all revenue-based transactions are processed via an IT system or application. This is true for both online e-commerce type transactions as well as traditional invoice runs on an in-house financial application. If a revenue-generating system is down the business cannot make money.
Scalability ensures online systems availability during periods where services are under heavy load. Services which are not able to scale will ultimately stop responding and go offline when all the allocated computing resources for the system have been consumed. The system can only start responding again if existing locked resources are released or additional resources added.
Scalability, therefore, benefits businesses by ensuring services and applications stay online and functional.
Poor performance and unavailability are punished in an online world
Most modern organisations interact with their customers through some form of online platform.
Social media has enabled organisations to interact with their customers on many different levels which have strengthened customer relationships. However, social media has also given consumers a platform to voice their grievances to the organisation while broadcasting these to other customers.
Poor application performance and service unavailability are heavily punished on social media. Businesses should, therefore, ensure they constantly strive to deliver an online service which performs well above the expectations set by its users.
By configuring their applications with a scalable architecture, organisations can ensure their applications perform admirably under heavy load.
Zettagrid’s cloud is built for scalability
Delivering Australia’s most advanced self-service cloud hosting platform with solutions such as application hosting as well as public, private and hybrid cloud offerings, Zettagrid is well placed to resolve scalability issues for businesses.
Organisations have the option to provision their services on Zettagrid’s cloud platform by subscribing to their virtual data centre or virtual server services which are built on VMware.
Zettagrid virtual servers have the added benefit of being fully customisable and give users the option to configure the computing resources of their virtual machine as they see fit with no templates or images which lock them down to specific configurations.
Should customers ever need to scale a Zettagrid virtual server they can easily do so at any time via the Zettagrid self-service portal.
Create a hybrid cloud with Zettagrid to facilitate on-premise scalability
Organisations could opt to create a hybrid cloud between their on-premise private cloud and the Zettagrid platform. This configuration gives customers the flexibility to move workloads between their two environments as demand fluctuates.
For periods of high demand, they can run their workload on Zettagrid’s platform which can scale to the resource requirements required.
Once demand decreases customers can simply migrate their workloads back to their private on-premise private cloud.
Scalability is good for business
The business benefits of scalability are clear and tangible. Scalability ensures you can make money and keep your customers happy when your systems are at their busiest.
Scalability is a major business benefit delivered by Zettagrid cloud.
Organisations can rest assured that their systems stay online and responsive when they need them to.
Ready to benefit from scalability?
Contact us now to discuss >>> call 1300 597 656 or email sales@zettagrid.com
