Vertical scalability refers to a system's ability to handle increasing or decreasing workloads by adjusting its resources. In the context of computer technologies, vertical scalability generally means enhancing the performance of a system by adding or removing resources within the same hardware.
In contrast to horizontal scalability, where capacity is increased by adding more machines or nodes, vertical scalability involves improving the capability of a single device, such as a server or a database, by adding more resources like CPU, RAM, or disk space.
Vertical scalability provides a relatively straightforward way to enhance a system's performance. However, there's a limit to how much a single device can scale, constrained by its physical limitations. In some cases, scaling might hit the boundaries of the hardware, leading to bottlenecks. This is why many companies also opt for horizontal scalability to make their systems more robust and resilient.
