A reader contacted me recently to ask if it is better to use a load balancer to add capacity or to make a service more resilient to failure. The answer is: both are appropriate uses of a load balancer. The problem, however, is that most people who use load balancers are doing it wrong.
In today's Web-centric, service-centric environments the use of load balancers is widespread. I assert, however, that most of the time they are used incorrectly. To understand the problem, we first need to discuss a little about load balancers in general. Then we can look at the problem and solutions.
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