1. What is load balancing? #
Definition and fundamental role in web architectures.
The load balancer #
Load balancing is a mechanism that distributes network or application traffic across a set of servers (the backend pool). Its purpose is to optimize resource usage, maximize throughput, reduce response time and, above all, avoid overloading a single server.
Why is it essential? #
Without load balancing, your infrastructure has a SPOF (single point of failure). If your only server goes down, the service stops. Load balancing enables high availability (redundancy) and horizontal scalability (adding servers to absorb traffic growth).
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