This lab introduces the basics of Auto Scaling in Amazon Web Services. The Amazon Web Services (AWS) Auto Scaling service automatically adds or removes compute resources allocated for your cloud application, in response to changes in demand. For applications configured to run on a cloud infrastructure, scaling is an important part of cost control and resource management.

Scaling is the ability to increase or decrease the compute capacity of your application either by changing the number of servers (horizontal scaling) or by changing the size of the servers (vertical scaling).

Auto Scaling helps you maintain application availability and allows you to scale the Amazon EC2 capacity up or down automatically according to the defined conditions. You can use Auto Scaling to help ensure that you are running your desired number of Amazon EC2 instances. Auto Scaling can also automatically increase the number of Amazon EC2 instances during demand spikes to maintain performance and decrease capacity during lulls to reduce costs. Auto Scaling is well suited to applications that have stable demand patterns, or that experience hourly, daily, or weekly variability in usage.