An application sees heavy traffic during holidays and low traffic afterward. What capability should the architecture support?

Elastic scaling is the correct answer because it allows an application to automatically adjust its resources (scale out or in) based on demand. This is ideal for scenarios with fluctuating traffic, like holiday peaks and subsequent lulls, ensuring optimal performance and cost efficiency. Manual scaling would require human intervention to add or remove resources, which is inefficient and slow for dynamic changes. Constant scaling would mean provisioning for peak load all the time, leading to wasted resources and higher costs during low-traffic periods. Static provisioning is similar to constant scaling, implying a fixed resource allocation that doesn't adapt to changing demands.