The joy of every app developer is to create a fully-functioning website that meets business and customer needs. However, there comes a moment when you build a perfect web app; then, the app gets potential users. In the process, you get to interact with the users, get feedback and determine the measures to put in place to enhance improvement. However, it reaches a point, and you realize users cannot access your application as before and achieve their desired purposes. This will make you perform app testing. While in the testing process, you realize your app is fully functional. You will then wonder where the issue is.
Well, should you face such a scenario, just know you are experiencing scalability problems, meaning your cloud technology doesn’t support scaling with increasing load.
So, for modern applications, know that scalability is a crucial element for the success of the app. Such an app should remain strong even when the number of users keeps increasing without affecting the overall functionality.
Keep reading to understand the app scalability, the essence of scalability, and the elements to remember if you want to create a highly scalable web application if you are a beginner or even an expert.
The significance of scalability
Unlike olden-day internet users, app users of this era will always want a perfect user experience in terms of faster loading time, minimum or no interruptions, and an all-time availability application despite the number of people visiting and using the application.
If your app is poorly designed and cannot withstand many people using the app, potential customers will leave your app, going for a better version for an improved user experience. So, in software development, scalability is crucial because of the following:
- It helps the general organization meet the ever-changing network requirements
- Helps in maintaining higher availability and keeping the users satisfied
- Helps in cost reduction in the off-seasons when the demand is less
While many companies tend to focus more on other features other than scalability, they often forget the significant element of web app development.
Understanding App scalability
Having defined the elements of scalability in development, application scalability is simply the app to manage the loading time along with the increasing number of users without affecting the general performance and without affecting user experience.
So, simply put, app scalability is the ability of the growing software or changes to meet the user’s needs.
Measuring the scalability of an app can be through the total requests the app can handle at a go.
However, measuring scalability is a complex process that will affect other software and hardware components.
So, for effective scaling, make sure you perform:
- Hard disk adjustments
- CPU and physical memory requirements adjustments
- Network bandwidth adjustments
These adjustments will enhance the correct configuration to meet a high number of requests. Scalability generally will help you serve the customer’s requests under heavy load while reducing downtime caused by server crashes.
So, up to this point, it is evident that the main purpose of scalability is to maintain a stable user experience as your app keeps growing. So, how do you ensure you build a scalable web applications? Let’s check out further in the next section.
How to Build a Scalable Web Applications
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Use appropriate tools for monitoring scalability
Once you have your app in place and fully functional, you will need to ensure proper and regular monitoring as you analyze the performance. So, you need to have a good APM – Application performance monitoring solution.
For instance, AppDynamics and New Relic are perfect examples of application performance monitoring solutions.
The process is even easier when you are using PaaS- Platform as a service account because such accounts offer reliable APM solutions.
The significance of monitoring app performance is to get useful insights to help you define areas that require your attention.
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Use the right database
The database is a key element in scaling, especially after you have determined architecture and infrastructure aspects.
So, how do you determine the right database? Use the following approaches.
- Evaluate your app requirements by determining the type of data you will need to store
- Get a relational database management system for relational data. Good examples include PostgreSQL and MySQL, which have high scalability.
- Integrate your chosen database in your app for efficiency.
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Choose a highly scalable framework
Well, frameworks, too, have a significant impact on the scalability of the app. However, these frameworks depend on the programming language you choose.
As in the case of Java, go for the tried-and-tested Spring framework
Js framework is the best option for Node.js programming language
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Go for appropriate infrastructure options for scalability
The best option is the PaaS provider, a cloud computing model which enhances the management of many cloud services aspects, including database, runtime environment, operating system, middleware, storage, servers, networking, and infrastructure.
Above all, PaaS providers have additional infrastructure resources that simplify the process of scaling your app. For instance, they provide flexible pricing plan options.
IBM Cloud PaaS, Microsoft Azure PaaS, Heroku, and AWS Elastic Beanstalk are perfect examples of the best PaaS providers.
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Know your web application scalability challenges
So, assume your web application is having scalability challenges. The very first thing to address is defining the specific issue affecting scalability. However, you have to use the appropriate metrics. In most instances, Disk I/O, Network I/O, CPU usage, and memory utilization are the most appropriate scalability metrics.
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Control stakeholder expectations on web app scaling
In the case where your app is responding according to your business anticipation, then all is okay, and your business is in the right state. In such an instance, avoid trying to improve scalability when there is no point. Instead, consider doing the following:
- Let your business stakeholders know that scaling up and scaling out of businesses can be costly.
- Get significant data showing that your web app is highly scalable and it is impacting your business positively.
- Let the stakeholders know that scaling a stable website app can bring complexities to the whole system, and modifying it in the future can be a big problem.
- Make your business stakeholders know that you don’t need to take up such tasks just because everyone else is scaling their business.
Conclusion
App scalability is a concern that developers should put into consideration. The aim of business applications is to achieve positive results concerning your business. While some developers don’t know the appropriate approaches to use to enhance high web app scalability, consider applying the above approaches for a highly scalable web app.
Finally, connect with application development company to know more about application scalability.