SAAS Application Scalability is complex because of too many moving parts!
One of the requests we frequently come across from multiple customers is to help with scalability. Modern SAAS applications involve too many moving parts, making scalability a challenging problem. But scalability challenge is a good problem to have, its indicative of growing popularity of the service. In this first part of the two-part series, we will look at 'when and why' of the problem. In the next part, we will look at how to go about breaking down the problem.
Organizations that build/operate IT applications targeting thousands to millions of users, are bound to encounter scalability challenges sooner or later. It’s not a matter of if, but when. Typical events that lead the systems to hit their bottlenecks include, but not limited to:
While some of the events maybe anticipated and planned, with usual focus on features, majority of organizations rarely have the bandwidth to test the limits their systems can be stretched to.
As much as facing scalability challenge is a good sign, not resolving it in time can cost hard gained momentum. As systems hit bottlenecks, users face inconvenience in terms of slower response times and worse - application unavailability. This exposes organizations to unwanted risks including but not limited to:
The multiple moving parts of SAAS applications necessitates expertise in multiple areas, with experts working in close coordination for successful resolution. In part-2 of this series, we will look at an approach to breaking the problem down.
