What is Load Balancing?
Load balancing distributes incoming traffic across multiple servers so no single server gets overwhelmed. It keeps your app fast and available even during traffic spikes.
In plain English
Think of a load balancer like a maître d' at a busy restaurant. Instead of seating everyone at one table, they spread guests across all available tables so service stays fast. When one table fills up, the next guests go elsewhere.
How it works
A load balancer sits in front of your servers and routes each incoming request to the server best able to handle it. Common strategies include round-robin (taking turns) and least-connections (sending traffic to the least-busy server). If one server goes down, the load balancer automatically stops sending traffic to it.
Why it matters for AI-built apps
AI-generated apps often launch without load balancing, which means a single viral moment can take the whole app offline. Adding a load balancer lets you scale horizontally by adding more servers instead of buying one giant expensive one. It also enables zero-downtime deployments by draining one server at a time.
Best practices
Enable health checks so the load balancer automatically removes unhealthy instances from the pool. Use sticky sessions only when truly necessary, since they undermine the balancing benefit. Pair load balancing with auto-scaling so new servers spin up when traffic rises and down when it falls.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a load balancer if I only have one server?
Not immediately, but you should add one before scaling. Most cloud providers offer managed load balancers that are cheap and easy to enable when you're ready.
Does a load balancer add latency?
Negligibly — typically under a millisecond. The availability and scalability benefits far outweigh any overhead.
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