What is a Load Balancer?

A load balancer is a device or software application that distributes network or application traffic across multiple servers.

• What Does a Load Balancer Do?

  • Distributes Traffic
  • Ensures Availability and Reliability
  • Improves Performance
  • Scales Applications

• Types of Load Balancers

  • Hardware Load Balancers: These are physical devices designed to distribute traffic across servers.
  • Software Load Balancers: These are applications that can be installed on standard hardware or virtual machines.
  • Cloud-based Load Balancers: Provided by cloud service providers, these load balancers are integrated into the cloud infrastructure. Examples include AWS Elastic Load Balancer, Google Cloud Load Balancing, and Azure Load Balancer.
  • Layer 4 Load Balancers (Transport Layer): Operate at the transport layer (OSI Layer 4) and make forwarding decisions based on IP address and TCP/UDP ports.
  • Layer 7 Load Balancers (Application Layer): Operate at the application layer (OSI Layer 7).
  • Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB): Distributes traffic across multiple geographical locations to improve redundancy and performance on a global scale.