From Manual To Automated: The Features Of AWS Auto Scaling

In a world of clouding, agility and flexibility are the keys to competitive advantage. Manually managing your servers might be error-prone and challenging. Here, AWS Auto Scaling comes into play!

Will managing servers without auto-scaling be complex? Let’s discover! 

Have you heard about Netflix migrating to AWS? A popular global online streaming platform, Netflix has a fluctuating traffic pattern. Handling the traffic of millions would have been a complex task, right? Adjusting resources’ capacity to cope with this much traffic required strong solutions. AWS Auto Scaling emerged as an answer. 

Let’s explore this article on features of AWS Auto Scaling to take a strategic move for your company!

What is AWS Auto Scaling 

AWS Auto Scaling is a resource optimization solution provided by Amazon Web Services. It allows automatic scaling up or down of cloud assets to match the fluctuating demand of traffic load. It ensures that you have the appropriate computing power available every time. It also monitors your application and maintains steady performance through resource fine-tuning.  

Types of AWS Auto Scaling

Here are the types of AWS Auto Scaling: 

1. Horizontal Scaling– Add extra resources 
2. Vertical Scaling- Enhances the capacity of the existing resources 
3. Scheduled Scaling- Adds on resources as per scheduled events or pre-determined conditions
4. Reactive Scaling- Adds resources to cope with the emerging requirements 
5. Dynamic Scaling- Adds resources in real-time
6. Predictive Scaling- Adds resources in advance to manage upcoming requirements 

AWS Auto Scaling Pricing

AWS Auto Scaling is a free service that you can opt for. You only need to pay for the resources you utilize. Amazon CloudWatch metrics and alarm offer AWS Auto Scaling services. You only need to pay the CloudWatch monitoring fees.

What are The Features of AWS Auto Scaling

Let’s dive into the features of AWS Auto Scaling:

1. Unified Scaling 

In a single unified environment, you can set up automated scaling for all the scalable assets that power your application, 

• Amazon EC2— In Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling Group deployed Amazon EC2 Instances 
• Amazon EC2 Spot Fleets— Deploy instances from the Spot Fleet or automate instance replacement in the event of capacity modulation requirements.  
• Amazon Aurora—Manages the number of Aurora read replicas launched in the Aurora DB Cluster to cope with sudden workload increases. 
• Amazon ECS— To cope with load variation, adjust ECS resources at the desired level 

2. Automated Resource Discovery

Since AWS Auto Scaling automatically identifies these resources, you don’t need to manually discover each scalable cloud asset via an individual service interface. Here are some strategies used for resource discovery in AWS;

• Tag-based Discovery—Allocate tags to each resource, which are to be managed by Auto Scaling. This helps when targeting specific tags consisting of autoscaling groups. 
• CloudFormation stack Discovery— When utilizing CloudFormation, auto-scaling automatically identifies scalable resources based on the stack. 

3. Built-in Scaling Techniques

In AWS Auto Scaling, you can pick from three pre-established optimization techniques that aim to balance performance and cost. If you prefer, you are encouraged to establish your target utilization level. Additionally, AWS Auto Scaling will set up scaling policies for your resources based on the scaling strategy/utilization level you choose.     

4. Predictive Scaling

Predictive Scaling distributes the right number of instances before forecasted fluctuations by accurately predicting future traffic, including cyclical spikes. The machine learning algorithms for predictive scaling automatically alter projections based on daily and weekly patterns. Now, there is no need to adjust autoscaling parameters manually.

5. Fully-managed

AWS Auto Scaling automates target-tracking scaling policy generation for cloud assets, considering the strategies you desire to opt for in a scaling plan. It also builds and manages the Amazon CloudWatch alarms to trigger scaling adjustments for every cloud resource. 

6. Scaling Policies

AWS Auto Scaling adjusts resource capacity to maintain your metrics on target. Its self-optimizing target-tracking scaling policies analyze your load pattern continuously to reduce resource capacity fluctuation.  The outcome is smarter, smoother scaling, and you must only pay for what you require.

Manage Your Resources With AWS Auto Scaling!

AWS Auto Scaling can be a paradigm shift for your company. It can ensure that your website is always available to users, automate resource adjustments, maximize efficiency, and minimize cost. Whenever this solution is supported by AWS Managed Services, transformative waves can be brought to the company. What are you waiting for? Try the features of AWS Auto Scaling to get a detailed view and determine your direction!

Thank you for reading this article;

You can also read about AWS Backup and Recovery

Happy clouding!