What does vertical scaling involve in a computing environment?

Vertical scaling, often referred to as "scaling up," involves increasing the size or capacity of existing resources within a server or system. This can mean augmenting the server's CPU, memory, or storage to handle larger workloads. Instead of adding more servers to a system, vertical scaling focuses on enhancing the capabilities of the current server, enabling it to manage more processes or accommodate higher performance demands.

In this context, when an organization needs to improve performance or support larger applications, they would opt to upgrade their existing server infrastructure, making it more powerful without physically adding new machines to their environment. This approach can be particularly effective for applications that are not designed for distributed computing.

The other options pertain to various concepts in computing but do not accurately capture the essence of vertical scaling. Increasing the number of servers pertains to horizontal scaling, while decreasing workloads focuses on optimization rather than capacity expansion. Distributing workloads across multiple services is also a characteristic of horizontal scaling rather than vertical scaling.