The chart above reflects the rewarding results of our new scalability. The orange line represents the database load placed on our primary InstaScreen database server. Our technology upgrade on May 12 enabled the workload of InstaScreen to distribute evenly across three additional replica servers. Now, instead of overloading one server with all of the work, the servers can scale horizontally to share the task of processing data.
Why horizontal scaling?
This new, advanced system architecture allows TazWorks to distribute your queries across multiple database instances rather than maxing out a single database. As you grow, the system will grow with you! If you were unable to attend the “Geek Speak” break-out at our recent user group meeting, you missed a humorous illustration of the difference between scaling up and scaling out horizontally. However, to see the full presentation, please attend next year’s user group meeting.
What’s next?
Horizontal scaling is one of the many benefits of our Year of Investing, but this is just the beginning! We have invested heavily in refining our software development processes to follow Agile methodologies. What this means for you is incremental improvements in InstaScreen delivered in smaller, more frequent software releases. By delivering software early and often, it allows for more productive feedback and client collaboration. The pinnacle of this refinement will be technology enabling TazWorks to deploy software releases without downtime. This new technology also seamlessly and transparently routes users to a healthy server if their server crashes. Technically inclined readers might recognize this as horizontal scaling at the application server level.
Our goal is providing the most intuitive, reliable, manageable and scalable platform in the industry. I am excited about the direction TazWorks is heading in realizing our goal. The entire TazWorks team and I look forward to providing you the tools to make your future bright and prosperous.
