Startup's journey from 0 to large number of Users - System Design

• Monolithic - A fledgling startup usually starts with a monolithic application on a single server. It's easy to set up but isn't very scalable. As the user base grows, the server might falter under the load, leading to the first scaling step: upgrading to a more powerful server.
• Caching - But that's just a band-aid solution. To handle higher traffic, particularly for read-heavy applications, a cache like Redis comes into play, enhancing speed and scalability by storing frequently accessed data.
• Sharding - As the demand surges, the load of write requests can burden the database. This issue is addressed by database sharding, which splits data across multiple databases, increasing scalability at the cost of complexity.
• Cloud - The startup, riding the wave of technological trends, then embraces cloud and serverless computing for improved scalability and hardware management. They use modern frontend frameworks and hosting platforms to build and deploy scalable frontend applications.
• NoSQL - With persistent growth, some workload may shift to a NoSQL database, reducing the load on the relational database. As the startup continues scaling, operational monitoring becomes crucial to catch performance issues early.
• Microservice - Finally, the startup might slowly migrate to a microservice architecture, enhancing scalability and enabling independent development, deployment, and scaling of different services. This journey takes them from a simple monolithic architecture to a highly scalable microservice structure, all thanks to a calculated, incremental approach to handle an expanding user base.