Can the Cloud Help Operations?
Roger McHaney · 2021
Several cloud features provide flexibility to organizations and help keep operations on track without the upfront investment. Two of the tools that help with this are load balancing and scalability/elasticity. This chapter provides a look at both in more detail. Load balancing algorithms are classified according to various criteria. In general, they can be static or dynamic, and centralized or distributed. Load balancing is a key feature of cloud computing. The concept of load balancing is extended to distributing server workloads and computing resources all within a cloud environment. Since elasticity is dynamic, it is a more important feature of cloud computing environments where resources are tied to cost. Both elasticity and scalability are managed by business rules specified by an IT system manager or corporate policy.