Horizontal vs. Vertical Scaling

Horizontal scaling involves adding more machines or servers to handle increased demand, spreading the workload across multiple units. Think of it as adding more lanes to a highway so more cars can drive simultaneously. Vertical scaling means upgrading an existing machine with better components, like more RAM or a faster processor, to improve its capacity. It's like upgrading a single car with a more powerful engine. Both methods aim to improve performance and handle more users or data, but horizontal scaling adds more resources, while vertical scaling makes existing resources more powerful.