Key considerations to optimize the business value of load balancing
In today’s dynamic application landscape, delivering an IT infrastructure that is highly available, performant and secure is crucial for organizations of all sizes. Load balancers help achieve this by distributing client network traffic across multiple servers. They also distribute traffic across geographic locations to minimize downtime and improve the application experience.
With 65% of organizations saying their cloud environment is multi-cloud, IT teams and enterprise decision makers are reevaluating their load balancing choices more often. They need a versatile, secure and cost-efficient solution that meets modern deployment needs: one that optimizes workflows and minimizes downtime to improve application performance. Understanding the essential role of load balancers, the state of load balancing in modern tech ecosystems, and where application delivery takes place today gives professionals a holistic perspective from which to make informed choices.
Principal Solutions Engineer, Progress.
The changing load balancer landscape
Numerous industry trends and application influences shape how load balancers are used today. IT teams and enterprise decision makers are increasingly open to exploring and adopting load balancing vendors and solutions. A survey conducted by EMA found that 80% of business organizations were willing to consider switching load balancing suppliers in the next two years.
There are numerous reasons behind the changing demand for applications. The rise of cloud-based applications, microservice architectures, and hybrid cloud deployments have increased the complexity of load balancing requirements. Many organizations struggle to support this evolving application landscape with their current load balancers, highlighting their need for a solution that provides advanced security, robust analytics and other features that simplify management.
Ongoing support costs for their existing load balancers and additional deployments can be significant, as can adding additional nodes for new applications. This is driving organizations to look for more cost-effective alternatives that allow them to flexibly scale their load-balancing architecture without significant spikes in their operational costs.
Benefits of load balancing
Load balancers drive business value in several ways, far beyond improving the performance, availability, reliability and redundancy of IT infrastructure to maintain continuous service.
In addition to these critical roles, load balancers can also optimize resource usage, significantly reducing costs and improving system performance. They facilitate the efficient use of server resources, reducing the risk of underutilization or overload.
Perhaps a lesser-known but crucial benefit: load balancers can improve security by controlling traffic in a way that reduces the risk of DDoS attacks. They can detect and block malicious traffic, protecting the network from potential threats. They can also play a crucial role in disaster recovery strategies by redirecting traffic to backup servers in the event of an outage. This capability maintains business continuity and minimizes downtime.
Load balancing allows organizations to easily add or remove servers based on traffic needs. This flexibility supports seamless scalability, accommodating a growing user base without service disruptions.
Considerations when choosing a load balancing platform
When evaluating load balancing platforms, it is essential to find one that can evolve as the organization’s needs change in scale and complexity. A platform that provides customer-centric support and rich online resources helps an organization of all sizes get the maximum benefit from implementations.
It is also worth checking out the supplier’s development history. For example, investigate how the supplier has invested in product R&D and how quickly bugs are fixed. Some vendors can even provide an estimate of ROI. Finally, it is critical that licenses are not only perpetual, but also provide flexibility that can be adapted to the needs of the business.
Some basic features to look for in a solution are:
Core load distribution: The core load balancing functionality essential to modern organizations includes on-premises, cloud, and hybrid application deployments. Even better is to find one that offers a Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) feature that can be used across multiple data centers, cloud providers, and regions.
Cybersecurity functionality: Layered cybersecurity functionality can provide an additional security boost to an organization’s existing cybersecurity practices. These include a Web Application Firewall (WAF), Edge Security Pack (ESP) including Reverse Proxy, End Point Authentication, Active Directory integration, RADIUS authentication, Single Sign On (SSO) for virtual services, RSA SecurID dual-factor authentication and Persistent Logging and Reporting.
Customizable deployment options: Load balancers can be deployed in a variety of infrastructure setups, including dedicated hardware, virtual machines, or cloud platforms, such as Azure and AWS.
Flexible and competitive prices: Specifiers should be able to choose the licensing model that suits their business needs. These include Perpetual, Subscription, Pay-as-You-Go (PAYG) and Pooled. With the right choice, organizations can achieve significant implementation cost savings and reduce ongoing support costs.
Prioritize safety and efficiency
The load balancer landscape continues to evolve in anticipation of emerging industry trends and influences. Therefore, a versatile, secure and efficient load balancing solution is essential for enterprises.
If organizations want to optimize their current load balancing capabilities for the best application experience, they must align with modern deployment needs, enhanced functionality, flexible licensing and lower cost of ownership, plus industry-leading support and online resources.
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