Load balancing technology is alive and well; in fact, it is the basis from which today's Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs) operate. But the pervasiveness of load balancing technology does not mean it is universally understood, nor is it typically discussed other than from a basic, network-centric viewpoint. In a more thorough exploration of the subject, this white paper intends to strip away some of the mystery and magic from basic load balancing practices.

This white paper describes the very beginning basics of load balancing technology. It is important to understand that this technology, while still in use, is now only considered a feature of ADCs. ADCs have evolved from the first load balancers and have completed the service virtualization process enabling them to not only improve availability, but also impact the security and performance of the application services being requested. Today, most organizations realize that simply being able to reach the application doesn't make it usable; and unusable applications mean wasted time and money for the enterprise deploying them. ADCs allow the consolidation of network-based services like SSL/TLS offload, caching, compression, rate-shaping, intrusion detection, application firewalls, and even remote access into a single point that can be shared and re-utilized across all application services and all hosts creating a virtualized application delivery network. At the same time, without the basic load balancing foundation described herein, none of the enhanced functionality of ADCs would be possible.