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Glossary Web & HTTP

Load balancer

A load balancer is a system that spreads incoming requests across several servers so no single one is overwhelmed.

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In more detail

It checks which back-end servers are healthy and sends each request to one of them, using a rule such as round robin or least connections. This adds capacity, lets servers be updated without downtime and removes a single point of failure. Many load balancers also terminate TLS.

See also

  • Glossary Proxy
    A proxy is an intermediary server that passes requests and responses between a client and the destination.
  • Glossary CDN
    A CDN (content delivery network) is a network of servers around the world that stores copies of a site's files and serves them from the.
  • Glossary Latency
    Latency is the delay between sending a request and starting to receive the response, usually measured in milliseconds.
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