Which statement accurately describes scalability in IT systems?

Scalability in IT systems is fundamentally about the capability of a system to handle increased workload effectively as demands rise. This involves upgrading resources—such as adding more servers, increasing storage capacity, or enhancing processing power—to accommodate growth in user load, data volume, or transaction levels without compromising performance.

Option B accurately encapsulates this idea by emphasizing the significance of upgrading resources to manage increased demands. It highlights how scalability enables organizations to expand their infrastructure and capabilities as needed, which is essential in today’s dynamic computing environments where workloads can fluctuate significantly.

While other options touch on relevant features of IT systems, they do not align with the core definition of scalability. For instance, automatic resource adjustment in real-time aligns more closely with the concept of elasticity, which is a related but distinct property. Cost efficiency during downtime pertains to resource management strategies rather than scalability specifically. Recovery from failures speaks to resilience rather than the ability to scale operations. Thus, option B stands out as the precise description of scalability in IT systems.