AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Practice Exam

What feature of Amazon Elastic Beanstalk supports efficient scaling based on workload?

1. Elastic Load Balancing

2. Auto Scaling Groups

3. Application Load Balancer

4. Security Groups

The correct answer is: Auto Scaling Groups

Auto Scaling Groups is the feature of Amazon Elastic Beanstalk that supports efficient scaling based on workload. This feature allows applications to automatically adjust the number of EC2 instances in response to changing traffic patterns. When the demand increases, Auto Scaling Groups can launch additional EC2 instances to handle the load, ensuring that the application maintains performance and availability. Conversely, when the demand decreases, the Auto Scaling Groups can terminate instances to reduce costs. The use of Auto Scaling Groups is particularly beneficial in cloud environments where workloads can fluctuate significantly. It automates the scaling process without manual intervention, which enhances operational efficiency and ensures optimal resource utilization. This capability helps maintain consistent application performance regardless of traffic spikes or drops. While Elastic Load Balancing distributes incoming application traffic across multiple targets and provides fault tolerance, it does not directly manage the number of instances based on workload. Similarly, the Application Load Balancer is primarily focused on routing traffic to various targets and maintaining the high availability of applications, but it does not address scaling itself. Security Groups, on the other hand, act as virtual firewalls to control inbound and outbound traffic to resources but do not relate to application scaling capabilities.