: Optimize application to handle huge load spikes Our application is growing fast so now we need to scale the infrastructure to don't slow down the entire website independently on how many users

@Bryan171

This sound like you need to improve your code instead of your hardware. You don't provide an example in your question so I cant assess the quality, so I've based it on the situation described.

Those cronjobs, why does that need to be more when you get more visitors? To me, that is a small red flag. I should not have to maintain my code per visitor.

E.g.1: Do you fetch something for the user? If so, can't you make a [click here to get result] so that you only cURL when the user clicks? That'll save you a lot of resource AND it scales easier because only active users require resource.
E.g.2: Do those cronjobs have to start at the same time, or can you chain them? I have a script which is quite intense, it loops through all products of all brands. But, I can afford some delay, so every 25 products it sleeps 1 second, after every brand it sleeps 10seconds. This dropped the 30% by spreading it across a longer period of time.
E.g.3: Is it relevant for all code to be updated all the time, or can you move this in the nightly hours? This allows you to push the CPU more as you don't ennoy users and there are no users to slow down the process.

This might not applicable to your situation, but you might want to try thinking of more examples. Too often people just up their hardware instead of improving their code. Might even be cheaper in the long run because you don't need to get a more expensive server.



If all of this isn't applicable and your code it of high quality performance wise, you might want to check out VPS services. Those often allow expention with a few clicks, e.g. you add another core or memory via your controlepanel and turn it off after your spike.

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