Guide To AWS Load Balancers

AWS Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) is a key service that enhances the availability and scalability of applications by distributing incoming traffic across multiple targets, with four main types of load balancers available: Classic Load Balancers, Application Load Balancers (ALBs), Network Load Balancers (NLBs), and Gateway Load Balancers (GWLBs). Classic Load Balancers, while still available, are largely deprecated in favor of ALBs and NLBs, which provide more advanced features and better performance for modern applications. ALBs operate at the application layer, supporting features like path-based and host-based routing, HTTP/2, and WebSocket protocols, making them ideal for distributing traffic among multiple backend services. NLBs are optimized for handling high-throughput, bursty workloads at the transport layer, offering static IP support and integration with existing security policies. The process of configuring an ALB involves setting up EC2 instances across multiple availability zones, defining security groups, and creating target groups to manage traffic routing and health checks. The choice between ALB and NLB depends on specific application requirements, such as the need for SSL/TLS encryption or specific routing capabilities.