Pets vs Cattle

Pets vs. Cattle is a famous analogy for infrastructure and server management.

Pets

Each system is treated individually and considered unique, with specific configuration and manual maintenance. It offers high control, personalization, and flexibility, but is expensive.

Examples: physical server, Virtual Machines

Cattle

Systems are considered as interchangeable groups. Configuration is standardized and maintenance is automated. It offers high scalability and availability at a low cost, but lacks standardization, flexibility, and control.

Examples: cloud servers, containers