Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies (AZ-300) Practice Exam

What is meant by scaling out?

1. Increasing the size of a single virtual machine

2. Adding more virtual machines or services to the architecture

3. Improving performance by upgrading existing resources

4. Reducing the load on a cloud service provider

The correct answer is: Adding more virtual machines or services to the architecture

Scaling out refers to adding more virtual machines or services to an architecture to handle increased load or demand. This approach allows for better resource management and can improve the overall performance of applications by distributing the workload across multiple instances rather than relying on a single resource. When an application experiences higher traffic or workload than a single virtual machine can handle, adding more instances (scaling out) helps to share the processing demands. This is often facilitated by load balancers that direct incoming requests evenly among the instances, leading to enhanced reliability and fault tolerance. This method is particularly effective in cloud environments, allowing for dynamic resource allocation based on current needs. In contrast, increasing the size of a single virtual machine would be considered scaling up, which often results in limitations tied to the maximum capabilities of that instance type. Improving performance by upgrading existing resources isn't synonymous with scaling out, as it focuses on enhancing the capacity of a single resource. Lastly, reducing the load on a cloud service provider is a goal of efficient architecture but does not define the concept of scaling out itself.