9/16/25, 12:22 PM Understanding Load Balancers: The Backbone of Scalable Web Architecture
Understanding Load Balancers: The Backbone
of Scalable Web Architecture
An Overview of Load Balancer Operations and Benefits
THE ARCHITECT’S NOTEBOOK
AUG 12, 2025
16 3 3 Sha
Ep #24: Breaking the complex System Design Components - Free Post
By Amit Raghuvanshi | The Architect’s Notebook
🗓️ Aug 12, 2025 · Free Post ·
Before We Begin
This post is not your average overview of load balancers. It’s crafted for tho
who want more than just definitions—it’s for readers who crave technical
depth, real-world context, and practical insights.
You’ll encounter key terminologies, layered explanations, and real
infrastructure patterns. Throughout the post, I’ve included short quotes an
in-line notes to clarify complex ideas and bring technical concepts to life.
Whether you're an architect, engineer, or curious learner, this guide is
designed to sharpen your understanding of how traffic distribution truly
works at scale.
Let’s dive in.
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9/16/25, 12:22 PM Understanding Load Balancers: The Backbone of Scalable Web Architecture
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Introduction: What is a Load Balancer?
In modern distributed systems, a load balancer is a crucial component
responsible for distributing incoming network traffic across multiple server
The core idea is simple yet powerful: instead of routing all requests to a sin
server, the load balancer ensures that no individual server is overwhelmed b
distributing the workload evenly. This approach improves responsiveness,
increases reliability, and ensures high availability.
Load balancers sit between clients and backend servers. When a client send
a request, the load balancer determines which server should handle that
request based on its configuration and chosen algorithm. This is essential fo
websites, applications, and services that need to handle large volumes of
concurrent users or transactions.
What Problem Do Load Balancers Solve?
In the early days of web applications, a single server could handle all incom
requests. However, as applications grew in popularity and complexity, this
approach led to several critical issues:
Single Point of Failure: If the server goes down, the entire application
becomes unavailable
Performance Bottlenecks: One server can only handle a limited numbe
of concurrent requests
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Scalability Limitations: Adding more capacity requires upgrading a sing
machine, which has physical and economic limits
Resource Inefficiency: Servers may be underutilized during low-traffic
periods but overwhelmed during peak times
Load balancers solve these problems by distributing the workload across
multiple servers, creating a more resilient and scalable system architecture
Basic Load Balancer Operation
At its core, a load balancer receives incoming requests from clients and
forwards them to one of several backend servers based on a predetermined
algorithm. The process typically follows these steps:
1. Request Reception: The load balancer receives an incoming request fro
a client
2. Server Selection: Using a load balancing algorithm, it selects an
appropriate backend server
3. Request Forwarding: The request is forwarded to the selected server
4. Response Handling: The server processes the request and sends the
response back through the load balancer
5. Client Response: The load balancer forwards the response to the origin
client
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Load Balancers in Modern Distributed System
Modern distributed systems rely heavily on load balancers to manage the
complexity of multi-tier architectures. In today's cloud-native environment
applications are typically decomposed into microservices, each running on
multiple instances across various servers or containers.
Placement in System Architecture
Load balancers can be deployed at multiple layers of a distributed system:
Layer 4 (Transport Layer)
Layer 4, the Transport Layer in the OSI model, is responsible for end-to-
end communication between devices. It manages data transfer, error
checking, and flow control using protocols like TCP and UDP. Load
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balancers operating at this layer make routing decisions based on IP
address and port without inspecting application data.
Operates at the TCP/UDP level
TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol
are transport layer protocols used for data transmission over networks.
TCP ensures reliable, ordered delivery with error checking and
retransmission. UDP is faster and connectionless, sending data without
guarantees, making it suitable for real-time applications like video
streaming or online gaming.
Makes routing decisions based on IP addresses and port numbers
IP addresses identify devices on a network, acting like digital home
addresses for sending and receiving data. Port numbers specify particula
services or applications on a device, allowing multiple network processes
operate simultaneously. Together, IP addresses and ports direct network
traffic to the correct destination and application.
Faster processing due to less inspection overhead
Cannot make application-aware routing decisions
Layer 7 (Application Layer)
Layer 7, the Application Layer in the OSI model, is the topmost layer tha
interacts directly with end-user software. It handles high-level protocols
like HTTP, FTP, and SMTP, enabling applications to communicate over th
network. Load balancers at this layer can inspect and route traffic based
content, headers, or cookies.
Operates at the HTTP/HTTPS level
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HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) is the foundation of data
communication on the web, enabling browsers to request and receive
webpages. HTTPS (HTTP Secure) is the secure version, encrypting data
with SSL/TLS to protect privacy and integrity, ensuring safe transmissio
of sensitive information over the internet.
Can inspect request content (headers, URLs, cookies)
Enables sophisticated routing based on application logic
Higher latency due to deeper packet inspection
Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) is a network filtering technique that
examines the data portion of packets, not just headers, to identify, classif
or block traffic. It enables advanced functions like intrusion detection,
content filtering, and bandwidth management by analyzing protocol
compliance, payload content, and even application-level data in real-tim
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Integration with Cloud Services
Modern cloud platforms provide managed load balancing services that
integrate seamlessly with other cloud components:
Auto-scaling Groups: Automatically add or remove servers based on
demand
Auto-scaling Groups are cloud computing resources that automatically
adjust the number of active servers based on demand, ensuring optimal
performance and cost efficiency. They monitor metrics like CPU usage o
traffic, scaling up during peak loads and down during low demand,
maintaining application availability and responsiveness.
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Health Checks: Continuously monitor server health and remove unheal
instances
Service Discovery: Automatically discover and register new service
instances
Service Discovery is a process in distributed systems where applications
services automatically identify and locate each other across a network. It
enables dynamic registration, discovery, and communication between
services, using tools like DNS or service registries, ensuring scalability, fa
tolerance, and efficient resource utilization.
SSL Termination: Handle SSL/TLS encryption and decryption
SSL Termination is the process where a server or load balancer decrypts
incoming SSL/TLS-encrypted traffic, converting it to plain text for
processing. This offloads encryption tasks from backend servers, improv
performance and simplifying certificate management, while maintaining
secure communication between clients and the termination point.
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs): Work together to optimize global
content delivery
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a geographically distributed netwo
of servers that cache and deliver web content to users from the nearest
location. By reducing latency and improving load times, CDNs enhance
website performance, reliability, and scalability while minimizing
bandwidth costs for static and dynamic content.
Microservices Architecture
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In microservices architectures, load balancers serve multiple critical
functions:
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Service-to-Service Communication: Balance traffic between microserv
instances
API Gateway Integration: Work with API gateways to route external
requests
An API Gateway is a server that acts as an intermediary between clients
and backend services, managing API requests. It handles routing,
authentication, rate limiting, and monitoring, simplifying access to multi
services, enhancing security, and improving scalability by centralizing AP
management and reducing complexity.
Circuit Breaking: Prevent cascading failures by detecting and isolating
problematic services
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Circuit Breaking is a design pattern in distributed systems that prevents
cascading failures by stopping requests to a failing service. Like an
electrical circuit breaker, it "trips" when errors exceed a threshold,
redirecting or halting requests, allowing the system to recover and
maintain overall stability.
Blue-Green Deployments: Enable zero-downtime deployments by
gradually shifting traffic
Blue-Green Deployments are a release strategy where two identical
environments (blue and green) are maintained. The blue environment run
the current application version, while the green hosts the new version.
Traffic switches to green after testing, minimizing downtime and enablin
quick rollback if issues arise.
Benefits and Disadvantages of Load Balancer
Benefits
High Availability and Fault Tolerance Load balancers eliminate single point
of failure by distributing traffic across multiple servers. If one server fails, t
load balancer automatically redirects traffic to healthy servers, ensuring
continuous service availability.
Improved Performance and Scalability By distributing the workload, load
balancers help optimize resource utilization and reduce response times. Th
enable horizontal scaling, allowing organizations to add more servers to
handle increased traffic rather than upgrading individual machines.
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Geographic Distribution Global load balancers can route traffic to the near
data center, reducing latency and improving user experience for
geographically distributed users.
Security Benefits Load balancers can provide an additional layer of security
by:
Hiding backend server details from clients
Acting as a reverse proxy to filter malicious requests
A reverse proxy is a server that sits in front of one or more backend serv
and forwards client requests to them. It hides the backend servers,
improves security, load distribution, and performance, and can handle SS
termination, caching, and compression to optimize web traffic and
resource usage.
Implementing DDoS protection through rate limiting
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack overwhelms a server or
network with a flood of traffic from multiple sources, making services slo
or unavailable. Attackers often use botnets—networks of compromised
devices—to generate this traffic, disrupting normal operations and causin
downtime, revenue loss, or security vulnerabilities.
Terminating SSL connections to reduce backend server load
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) connections encrypt data transmitted betwe
a client and a server, ensuring privacy, integrity, and authentication. Used
primarily for securing web traffic (HTTPS), SSL prevents eavesdropping a
tampering by encrypting sensitive information like login credentials,
personal data, and payment details during transmission over the internet
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Traffic Management Advanced load balancers offer sophisticated traffic
management capabilities:
A/B testing by routing specific percentages of traffic to different versio
A/B testing is a method of comparing two versions of a webpage, app, or
feature to determine which performs better. Users are split into groups,
each experiencing a different version (A or B). Metrics like click-through
rate or conversions are measured to make data-driven decisions and
optimize user experience.
Canary deployments for gradual rollouts
Canary deployments gradually roll out new software versions to a small
subset of users before a full release. This approach minimizes risk by
allowing teams to monitor performance, detect issues, and gather feedba
early. If problems arise, the deployment can be rolled back without
affecting the entire user base.
Maintenance mode routing for zero-downtime updates
Disadvantages
Additional Complexity Load balancers introduce another component that
must be managed, monitored, and maintained. This increases system
complexity and requires specialized knowledge.
Single Point of Failure Concern While load balancers eliminate server-leve
single points of failure, they can themselves become bottlenecks. This
necessitates load balancer redundancy and high availability configurations.
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Latency Overhead Every request must pass through the load balancer,
introducing additional network hops and processing time. This is particular
noticeable in Layer 7 load balancers that perform deep packet inspection.
Cost Implications Hardware load balancers can be expensive, and even
software solutions require additional infrastructure and operational overhe
Cloud-based load balancers charge based on usage, which can become cost
at scale.
Session Management Challenges Applications that rely on server-side
sessions face challenges when requests from the same user may be routed
different servers. This requires implementing session persistence or
redesigning applications to be stateless.
Session persistence, also known as sticky sessions, is a load balancing
technique that ensures a user's requests are consistently directed to the
same backend server during a session. This is useful when session data is
stored locally on the server, helping maintain continuity in user experien
and application behavior.
Configuration Complexity Properly configuring load balancers requires
understanding of networking, application behavior, and traffic patterns.
Misconfiguration can lead to poor performance or security vulnerabilities.
Real-World Use Cases
E-commerce Platforms
Amazon/eBay Architecture Large e-commerce platforms use multiple laye
of load balancers:
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Global Load Balancers: Route users to the nearest regional data center
A Global Load Balancer (GLB) distributes network traffic across multiple
servers or data centers worldwide, optimizing performance and availabil
It routes requests based on factors like geographic location, server health
or latency, ensuring high availability, fault tolerance, and efficient resour
utilization for global applications.
Application Load Balancers: Distribute traffic among web servers
handling different functions (product catalog, user accounts, checkout)
Application Load Balancers (ALBs) distribute incoming application traffic
across multiple servers or services, optimizing performance and availabil
Operating at the application layer (Layer 7), ALBs handle HTTP/HTTPS
requests, supporting advanced routing, SSL termination, and content-
based routing, ensuring scalability, fault tolerance, and efficient resource
utilization.
Database Load Balancers: Balance read queries across multiple databas
replicas
Database Load Balancers distribute database queries across multiple
database servers to optimize performance, scalability, and availability.
Operating at the application or network layer, they route requests based
workload, server health, or query type, ensuring efficient resource use,
fault tolerance, and reduced latency for database-driven applications.
CDN Integration: Work with content delivery networks to serve static
assets
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During events like Black Friday, these platforms may handle millions of
requests per minute, with load balancers automatically scaling resources an
managing traffic spikes.
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If you want to build strong foundations before jumping into technologies
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Streaming Services
Netflix/YouTube Architecture Video streaming platforms face unique
challenges:
Content Delivery: Load balancers work with CDNs to serve video conte
from optimal locations
API Load Balancing: Distribute requests for user profiles,
recommendations, and metadata
API Load Balancing distributes API requests across multiple backend
servers to optimize performance, scalability, and reliability. It routes traf
based on factors like server health, response time, or request type,
ensuring efficient resource use, fault tolerance, and low latency for API-
driven applications.
Geographic Routing: Route users to servers with locally cached conten
Geographic Routing directs network traffic to servers based on the user
geographic location, optimizing performance and latency. By leveraging
DNS or load balancers, it routes requests to the nearest or most suitable
data center, enhancing user experience, reducing delays, and ensuring
efficient resource utilization for global applications.
Device-Specific Routing: Route different device types to optimized
endpoints
Device-Specific Routing directs network traffic based on the type of dev
making the request, such as mobile, desktop, or IoT. Using load balancers
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or routing rules, it sends requests to optimized servers or content tailore
for the device, improving performance, user experience, and resource
efficiency.
Financial Services
Banking Systems Financial institutions require extremely high availability a
security:
Transaction Processing: Balance payment processing across multiple
secure servers
Regulatory Compliance: Ensure traffic routing meets data residency
requirements
Data residency requirements mandate that data be stored and processe
within specific geographic boundaries, often to comply with local laws or
regulations. These rules ensure data privacy, security, and sovereignty,
requiring organizations to use local data centers or cloud regions to mee
jurisdictional compliance and protect user information.
Fraud Detection: Route suspicious transactions to specialized fraud
analysis systems
Fraud Analysis Systems detect and prevent fraudulent activities by
analyzing patterns, behaviors, and anomalies in data. Using machine
learning, rule-based algorithms, and real-time monitoring, they identify
suspicious transactions or activities, flagging or blocking them to protec
businesses and users from financial loss and security breaches.
High Availability: Maintain 99.99% uptime requirements through
redundant load balancer configurations
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99.99% uptime, often called "four nines", refers to a system’s availability,
allowing for a maximum of approximately 52.56 minutes of downtime per
year. It indicates high reliability, achieved through redundant
infrastructure, fault-tolerant designs, and proactive monitoring to ensur
minimal service disruptions for critical applications.
Gaming Industry
Multiplayer Game Servers Online games present unique load balancing
challenges:
Geographic Latency: Route players to servers in their region for optima
performance
Server Capacity Management: Balance player connections across game
servers based on current capacity
Session Persistence: Ensure players remain connected to the same gam
server throughout their session
Peak Traffic Handling: Manage massive traffic spikes during game
launches or special events
Content Management Systems
[Link]/Medium Architecture Large-scale content platforms use
load balancers for:
Read/Write Separation: Route read requests to multiple replicas and
write requests to primary databases
Read/Write Separation is a database architecture where read and write
operations are split across different servers. Writes go to a primary
database, while reads are handled by one or more replica databases. This
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improves performance, scalability, and load balancing, especially for read
heavy applications, while maintaining data consistency.
Media Serving: Balance requests for images and videos across multiple
storage systems
Search Functionality: Distribute search queries across multiple search
engine instances
Admin vs. Public Traffic: Route administrative requests to dedicated
servers
Conclusion and Closing Thoughts
Load balancers are foundational to building scalable, high-performing, and
resilient systems. From solving traffic bottlenecks to ensuring uptime and
fault tolerance, their role in modern infrastructure is indispensable. Wheth
operating at Layer 4 or Layer 7, or integrated with cloud platforms, they
intelligently manage and distribute traffic to meet user demand efficiently.
By now, you’ve gained a solid understanding of what load balancers are, the
problems they solve, how they operate at different layers, and why they are
essential in real-world systems.
What’s Next?
In the next (premium) post, we’ll take a deep dive into the algorithms and
architectures behind load balancers—exploring how they handle millions of
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