A horizontally scalable system is one that can increase capacity by adding more computers to the system.
flowchart LR
subgraph Before
A[(Computer 1)]
end
subgraph After
B[(Computer 1)]
C[(Computer 2)]
D[(Computer 3)]
end
Before --> After
Horizontal Scaling Advantages
- Allows for parallel execution of workloads
- Increased fault tolerance
- Cheaper compared to vertical scaling
Horizontal Scaling Disadvantages
- Decreased consistency
- Joining data between nodes is more time consuming