What is the differences between 'scalability' and 'elasticity' when speaking in terms of cloud hosting?
If you are asked this type of question, the interviewer is attempting to confirm that you really understand the concepts of cloud hosting. They may also be genuinely trying to clarify this information for their own benefit. You should answer the question as clearly and succinctly as possible.
"Scalability is a characteristic of cloud computing which is used to handle the escalating workload by escalating in proportion amount of resource capacity. Using scalability, the service provider can easily and quickly add resources when the requirements are being raised by the client. On the other hand, Elasticity is a characteristic that provides for the concept of provisioning and de-provisioning a large amount of resource capacity dynamically. It is usually measured by the speed by which the resources are coming on demand and the usage of those resources. Scalability often refers to a permanent increase in resources whereas Elasticity is temporary, based on fluctuating demands or business activity."
