Cloud Computing – Load Balancing

Reasons for Load Balancing

• Fault Tolerance – Load Balancing offers fault tolerance incase a server fails.
• Server Upgrades – It’s easier to upgrade hardware if you can take entire machines offline without effecting user experience.
• Hardware Performance – having as few users on a single server as possible will provide users with the best experience
• Network Performance – Users can be routed to the servers that are physically closest to them
• A/B Testing – New server configurations can be tested easily

Types of Load Balancing

• Hardware – Load Balancing Hardware is networking equipment you would install in your data center to route traffic to your servers
• Built In – Many products have Load Balancing built into them such as Microsoft Active Directory
• As a Service – Companies such as Cloudflare now provide Load Balancing services for your internet connected servers.