Scaling based on average load

Unless you’re getting 1,000 hits a day, you don’t need an upgrade.

Take a look at <br> <br><ul><li><a href=“https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-scale-your-infrastructure-with-digitalocean”>https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-scale-your-infrastructure-with-digitalocean</a>; and</li><li><a href=“https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-scale-web-applications-on-ubuntu-12-10”>https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-scale-web-applications-on-ubuntu-12-10</a></li></ul>

I have read the articles, but they are more focused on ‘how to scale’ then ‘when to scale’. I’m planning to move to DigitaOcean a php application that needs more processing power than a regular website. It is running on a dedicated server now but it becomes overloaded on traffic spikes. I need a scalable solution. I want to make the php app to be self-aware when the host is overloaded. I’m looking for a simple solution and I was thinking to use the server load averages but I’m not sure what value would indicate that the droplet is overloaded and based on this, to open a new droplet. My questions again: <br> <br>Based on the load averages, above which value should I open a new droplet? <br>Do you think I need more advanced monitoring tools for this or the server load average reading would be enough? <br>