With the advent of cloud computing, managing network traffic and ensuring optimal performance have become critical aspects of system architecture. Amazon Web Services (AWS), a leading cloud service provider, offers a suite of load balancers to manage network traffic effectively for applications running on its platform. Two such offerings are the Application Load Balancer (ALB) and Network Load Balancer (NLB). This extensive guide aims to provide an in-depth comparison between these two types of load balancers, helping you choose the most suitable option for your application’s needs.

Overview

The primary role of a load balancer is to distribute network traffic evenly among multiple servers or ‘targets’ to ensure smooth performance and prevent any single server from being overwhelmed. AWS provides three types of load balancers: Classic Load Balancer (CLB), Application Load Balancer (ALB), and Network Load Balancer (NLB).