Strategies to Scale Web Applications

 

As web applications grow, so must the infrastructure. Here are 8 key strategies to build scalable systems:

1 - Stateless Services: Enhance flexibility and fault tolerance

2 - Horizontal Scaling: Add machines to distribute load

3 - Load Balancing: Efficiently spread traffic across servers

4 - Auto Scaling: Dynamically adjust resources with demand

5 - Caching: Boost response times and reduce database strain

6 - Database Replication: Increase data availability and read speed

7 - Database Sharding: Partition data for improved write scalability

8 - Async Processing: Handle time-consuming tasks without blocking

These techniques form the backbone of high-performance, scalable web architectures

Stateful applications retain data between sessions, but stateless applications don't. For example, stateful applications remember products in a user's cart after logging out, while stateless applications treat every login as a new session and cart information is lost.

One example of a stateful application is a stateful web service that stores client authentication data on the server, labeling clients as having a “connected” or “disconnected” state. It also stores information about previous requests from the same clients.

What is an example of a stateless web application?

Some examples of stateless applications are:

• HTTP: HTTP is a stateless internet data transfer protocol. ...
• RESTful APIs: Networked applications often use Representational State Transfer (REST) architecture. ...
• Stateless microservices: Stateless microservices perform specified activities without storing state information.