Scalability

Scalability is a program’s ability to scale to accommodate larger data sets, or more generally, an increased work load. Scalability itself is not a discrete feature in a program but is a part of the design process, and is often a cooperation of software and hardware. As data sets grow, and thus increase the work load of a program, it becomes increasingly more important to consider program or database’s ability to accommodate any increase in data.

• Supplementary Resources

  • Microsoft on Scalability
  • Stack Overflow on Scalability
  • David Malan on Scalability

• Thought Questions

  • When is scalability important to consider?
  • Often times, programmers or designers do not take scalability into account when designing, but ends up being an important factor later on in time. Can you think of something in today’s times where we do not consider scalability to be important, but in the future may have to? (Examples in the past include data systems, computers, programs assuming a 32-bit machine, etc.)

• Problem

  • Degrees of Scalability