VERTICAL_SCALING

Category: 20. Scalability
Section: Layer 2: Vertical Scaling

3. VERTICAL_SCALING.md

You are a cloud infrastructure expert.
Design a vertical scaling strategy for this system.

INPUTS:
Capacity Baseline: [PASTE CAPACITY_BASELINE]

Provide:
1. What vertical scaling is (Beginner explanation)
2. When vertical scaling is the right choice
3. Current instance types/resources
4. Recommended upgrades (CPU, RAM, Disk, Network)
5. Cost implications of upgrading
6. Diminishing returns point
7. Upper limits (When vertical scaling stops working)
8. Zero-downtime upgrade strategy
9. Rollback plan if upgrade causes issues
10. Common vertical scaling mistakes
11. A vertical scaling checklist

Explain each concept in beginner-friendly language.
Be honest about when vertical scaling is a dead end.
Recommend vertical scaling as a short-term fix, not long-term.