Okuzeka
Software Engineering vocabulary · Release and Maintenance

Autoscaling

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/ˈɔːtoʊˌskeɪlɪŋ/nounCore term

In software engineering, autoscaling means: Automatically adding servers or containers when demand rises and removing them when it falls, based on rules such as CPU use or number of requests.

In Turkish: otomatik ölçekleme, autoscaling

How it is used

Also written 'auto scaling' or 'auto-scaling'. Examples are AWS Auto Scaling groups and the Kubernetes Horizontal Pod Autoscaler. Teams set minimum and maximum limits and a target, such as 60 percent CPU.

Example sentences

  1. Autoscaling added twelve pods during the match, then removed them when traffic dropped.

  2. Set a maximum for autoscaling, or a traffic spike could double the bill.

Common collocations

  • autoscaling group
  • autoscaling policy
  • enable autoscaling
  • autoscaling rules
  • scalableAble to handle more users, data or traffic by adding resources, without a complete redesign and without becoming much slower.
  • scale outTo handle more load by adding more servers, containers or instances that share the work, rather than making one machine bigger.
  • load balancerA service that receives incoming traffic and spreads it across several servers, sending requests only to the ones that are healthy.
  • metricA number measured regularly over time to show how a system is behaving, such as CPU use, memory, request count or error rate.
  • cost optimizationReducing cloud spending without hurting performance or reliability, for example by removing unused resources, choosing the right sizes and using discounts.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Release and Maintenance

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: