Pattern 27 / SCALE
Use this when getting more capacity quickly from a single-node component.
Vertical Scaling fits when getting more capacity quickly from a single-node component. Mechanism: upgrade CPU, memory, disk, or network resources of the machine running the workload. Use it for databases, single-node services, quick fixes, and workloads that do not parallelize easily. The toll: hard physical ceiling, larger blast radius, and diminishing returns.
Databases, single-node services, quick fixes, and workloads that do not parallelize easily.
Moving postgresql to a larger instance before sharding.
Describe the pressure first, then the mechanism, then the cost. That keeps the design grounded.
Same pressure family