pets vs cattle
6 October 2016 · Filed in InfrastructureYou've got a great application and users are finding it useful. Word is spreading, you need to scale to expand to keep up with demand.
I wrote about this choice in the article Scale UP or Scale OUT?
A metaphor attributed to Randy@Microsoft (link below) known as Cattle vs Pets, helps clarify the choice.
PET computer
Pets
When you name your server like troy, stella, kryten, etc.
They are unique, loved and cared for.
When they become ill, they are nursed back to health and you hope they will stay well for a long time.
You couldn't possibly imagine getting rid of or decommissioning the server.
A numbered cow
Cattle
They are name more like a number - S02343. They are pretty much identical to the others, when they get ill, you just get another one. As the server is so easily replace, you wouldn't think twice about removing any you don't need, at night for instance.
Our solution is to give you a way of creating servers, automatically and on demand. How ever many you need. With the confidence of being able to create a server whenever you want, it's easy to decommission they when not needed. This allows your business to follow the demand curve with the supply of servers meeting that demand. This allows you to pay for the servers, when they are needed, and save money when they are not. In the example below, traditionally 2 servers would be on all day. Imagine the cost savings if you have one server on all day, and only pay for the extra server during the peak working hours. Saving 2/3 cost of a server, every single day.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="638"]
Elastic Capacity meets demand[/caption]
For an informal chat with one of our cloud specialists, contact us.
Ref:
Randy's slideshow