NexQloud Knowledge Base

Nexqloud offers a suite of fully managed, software-defined load balancers to meet different architectural needs. The primary distinction is based on the network layer at which they operate.

1. Application Load Balancer (Layer 7 - HTTP/HTTPS)
   ‍This load balancer operates at the application layer, understanding the content of the requests (like URLs and headers).
   • ‍Ideal For: Web applications, microservices, and content-based routing.‍
   • Key Features:
     • ‍Content-Based Routing: Route traffic to different backend services based on the URL path (e.g., /api/ to an API server, /images/ to a storage bucket).‍
     • SSL/TLS Termination: Offload the CPU-intensive work of encrypting and decrypting traffic from your backend instances to the load balancer.‍
     • Global Scalability: Distribute traffic across backend instances in multiple regions, bringing users to the closest available resources.‍
2. Network Load Balancer (Layer 4 - TCP/UDP)
   ‍This load balancer operates at the transport layer, routing traffic based on IP protocol data (IP addresses and ports) without inspecting the content.
   • ‍Ideal For: Non-HTTP traffic, such as gaming servers, databases, VPNs, and applications requiring extreme performance and low latency.‍
   • Key Features:
     • ‍High Performance: Handles millions of requests per second with minimal latency.‍
     • Preservation of Source IP: The original client IP address is passed to the backend instance, which is crucial for security and logging.‍
     • Regional Distribution: Distributes traffic among instances within a single region.‍
3. Internal Load Balancer
   ‍This is used for distributing traffic within a private Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) network, not from the internet. It's essential for multi-tier application architectures.
   • ‍Ideal For: Creating secure, internal application tiers where the database or business logic layer should not be exposed to the public internet.