Patent ID: 8719445

Claim:
A system for load balancing multiple file transfer protocol (FTP) servers to service FTP connections for a cloud-based service, the system, comprising: a load balancing agent; multiple FTP servers coupled to the load balancing agent, which identifies an FTP server from the multiple FTP servers to which to send a control signal of an FTP connection; wherein, in response to the control signal, the FTP server, identifies a specific port within a port range and returns a port identifier to the specific port to the load balancing agent; wherein, the load balancer receives the data signal of the FTP connection on the specific port and uses the port range within which the specific port falls to identify the FTP server on which the control signal was sent; wherein, the load balancing agent is associated with a virtual IP address for use in load balancing requests from multiple FTP clients of the cloud-based service among the multiple FTP servers; wherein, the multiple FTP clients are integrated with existing hardware infrastructure of a client site utilizing the cloud-based service.