Scaling Concepts and Services
Loosely Coupled Architecture
Loosely coupled architecture is a design pattern where components work independently with minimal knowledge of other components' internal workings. This approach offers several key advantages:
Layers of abstraction
Flexibility in adding or modifying functionality
Interchangeable components
Atomic functional units
Independent component scaling
Example of Performance Optimization
Consider a three-step workflow with a 15-second performance requirement:
Step 1: 5 seconds
Step 2: 20 seconds
Step 3: 5 seconds
Two potential solutions:
Traditional Scaling Approach:
Increase compute and RAM for Step 2
Reduces total time to 15 seconds
Drawback: Excess resources for Steps 1 and 3
Loosely Coupled Solution:
Separate hardware for each step
Message-based communication between steps
Option for parallel processing in Step 2
Maintains 15-second requirement
Optimizes resource utilization
Scaling Methods Comparison
Scaling Up (Vertical)
Adds CPU/RAM to existing instances
Requires instance restart
Needs automation scripting
Limited by maximum instance sizes
Higher operational overhead
Scaling Out (Horizontal)
Adds more instances
No downtime required
Built into many AWS services
Unlimited scaling potential
More flexible and resilient
Key Considerations for Scaling
Service Selection
Cost considerations
Performance requirements
Operational overhead
Metric Selection
Must align with business needs
Optimizes for cost or performance
Critical for Auto Scaling groups
Event-Driven Architecture
A form of loosely coupled architecture consisting of:
Event producers
Event routers
Event consumers
Features:
Asynchronous communication
Independent scaling
Atomic components
Complex workflow support
Example: Lambda functions communicating through EventBridge
This architecture style particularly suits cloud environments where scalability, flexibility, and resilience are crucial requirements.
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