What is AWS Auto Scaling?
AWS Auto Scaling is a service that automatically scales Amazon EC2 capacity to maintain application availability and performance at the lowest possible cost. It allows you to automatically scale your Amazon EC2 capacity up or down according to conditions you define.
With Auto Scaling, you can ensure that the number of Amazon EC2 instances you're using scales up seamlessly during demand spikes to maintain performance, and scales down automatically during demand lulls to minimize costs. Auto Scaling is particularly well suited for applications that experience hourly, daily, or weekly variability in usage.
Auto Scaling uses specified metrics and target values to determine when to launch or terminate EC2 instances. For example, you can specify that Auto Scaling keeps your usage at a certain level during business hours, and then drops by a set amount after hours. Auto Scaling will then automatically launch and terminate instances based on the defined schedule.
Auto Scaling can also perform automatic scaling based on dynamic parameters like CPU utilization levels or available network bandwidth. By automatically adding capacity during demand spikes, Auto Scaling helps maintain consistent performance at the lowest possible cost.