Scale Cube

Scale by cloning

You run multiple instances of the application behind a load balancer

The load balancer distributes requests among the N identical instances of the application

Great way to improve the capacity and availability of an application

Scale by splitting things that are different

For example, split by function

You split an application into a set of services

Each service has a focused, cohesive set of responsibilities. A service is scaled using X-axis scaling, and, possibly, Z-axis scaling

Great way to solve problems of increasing development and application complexity

Scale by splitting similar things

For example, by customer ID

You run multiple instances of the application behind a router

Each instance is responsible for only a subset of the data. The router in front of the instances uses a request attribute to route it to the appropriate instance.

Great way to handle increasing transaction and data volumes