Scalability is the ability of a process, system, or framework to handle a growing workload. In other words, a scalable system is adaptable to increasing demands. The ability to scale on demand is one of the biggest advantages of cloud computing.
This article needs additional citations for verification. (March 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) |
Scalability is the property of a system to handle a growing amount of work by adding resources to the system.
In an economic context, a scalable business model implies that a company can increase sales given increased resources. For example, a package delivery system is scalable because more packages can be delivered by adding more delivery vehicles. However, if all packages had to first pass through a single warehouse for sorting, the system would not be scalable, because one warehouse can handle only a limited number of packages.
In computing, scalability is a characteristic of computers, networks, algorithms, networking protocols, programs and applications. An example is a search engine, which must support increasing numbers of users, and the number of topics it indexes.Webscale is a computer architectural approach that brings the capabilities of large-scale cloud computing companies into enterprise data centers.
In mathematics, scalability mostly refers to closure under scalar multiplication.