What is the function of Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling?

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is designed to automatically adjust the number of EC2 instances in your application based on specific conditions, such as traffic demand or system performance metrics. This capability ensures that your application can handle varying levels of traffic while optimizing costs. When demand increases, Auto Scaling can launch additional EC2 instances to ensure performance and reliability. Conversely, when demand decreases, it can terminate instances to save on costs, ultimately allowing for a more efficient use of resources.

By managing the scaling of instances dynamically, Auto Scaling helps maintain application availability and ensure optimal performance without manual intervention. This function is essential for applications that experience fluctuating workloads, as it helps ensure that sufficient compute resources are provisioned and decommissioned as needed, thus supporting both scalability and cost-effectiveness in cloud environments.