Which OCI service helps optimize resource usage based on real-time demand?

The service that optimizes resource usage based on real-time demand is autoscaling. Autoscaling automatically adjusts the number of computing resources allocated to applications based on current traffic and workload requirements. This means that as demand increases, more instances are provisioned to handle the load, ensuring that applications remain responsive and efficient. Conversely, when demand decreases, autoscaling reduces the number of active instances, which helps minimize costs without sacrificing performance.

In contrast, load balancing distributes incoming traffic across multiple resources to ensure no single resource is overwhelmed at any given time, but it does not inherently adjust the number of resources based on demand. A Virtual Cloud Network (VCN) is primarily focused on network infrastructure and does not directly influence resource usage optimization. Compute instances are the basic units of computing power in OCI but must be managed explicitly in terms of scaling without the intelligent adjustments provided by autoscaling. Thus, autoscaling is the key service that directly addresses the needs of optimizing resource usage in real-time.