Scaling Out

Expanding a cluster’s capabilities “horizontally” by adding additional nodes like those already existing, thus creating additional resources without implying a change in the capabilities of existing resources. In HPC, this typically means adding additional compute nodes to a supercomputer, which adds new resources without upgrading the existing compute nodes already in the supercomputer. In on-prem HPC, this would be racking and connecting a new server in a server rack with existing compute node servers, while in cloud HPC, this would mean spinning up a new instance and networking it with existing compute node instances. It follows that it's generally easier to scale out in the cloud than it is on-prem.