Amazon launched a new Auto Scaling feature for its Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform. AWS Auto Scaling takes the automatic scaling features already available with EC2, ECs, Spot Fleets, and other AWS services and packs them into a single user interface.
The cloud enables companies to quickly scale their IT infrastructure to meet demand when it is needed. This enables companies to endure sudden, unexpected spikes in traffic to their website or application where a traditional server setup is limited to the resources the company has on hand.
What AWS Auto Scaling Does
In a recent blog post, Amazon’s Jeff Barr states, “Today we are making it easier for you to use the Auto Scaling features of multiple AWS services from a single user interface with the introduction of AWS Auto Scaling.”
Auto Scaling combines the features of multiple AWS services into a single user interface. The new service unifies and extends existing service-specific scaling features.
These services include:
- EC2 Auto Scaling groups
- EC2 Spot Fleets
- ECS tasks
- DynamoDB tables
- DynamoDB Global Secondary Indexes
- Aurora Replicas tied to applications
What AWS Auto Scaling Means for Customers
In the past, users would need to set up alarms and scaling actions for each service and resource. With AWS Auto Scaling, users can point it to the service(s) and resource(s) that they wish to apply it to and control it from a single interface.
Users can still set their preferred scaling options for each service through this interface. Users can optimize scaling for cost, availability, or a mixture of the two ensuring that enough resources are available and costs are kept within the business’ budget.
Availability
AWS Auto Scaling is available now in the US East (Northern Virginia), US East (Ohio), US West (Oregon), EU (Ireland), and Asia Pacific (Singapore) regions. Additional regions are slated to follow soon.
AWS Auto Scaling is a free feature to use. Users only incur a fee for the CloudWatch Alarms it creates and any AWS resources utilized.
