With the stakes for loss of revenue or business failure higher than ever, companies of every ilk are looking for Internet technology solutions that not only optimize the network infrastructure but provide end-users with the peak experience they demand, as well. In this article, we'll examine how load balancers are increasing site availability and eliminating the risks associated with downtime. Figure 1 shows the market leaders at the beginning of 2000. Figure 2 shows the projected market.
Load balancers are now a check-list item for many companies doing business on the Internet.
Also known as Internet traffic management devices, load balancers sit at the center of a variety of network devices and are designed to improve performance, availability, and reliability. Simply stated, a load balancer's basic role is to balance the workload for a group of servers, or to throttle traffic, to the best server location, and, thus, increase the servers' overall efficiency. Load balancers distribute server requests in such as way that some servers do not sit idle while other servers are overworked. Let's look at a real-life example. As the domcom enterprise grew over the past several years, it quickly recognized that it needed to add load-balancing devices to its network infrastructure.