Psychz - Kamal
Votes: 2Posted On: Jun 05, 2017 05:39:11
Before diving into hardware and software load balancers let us first discuss load balancers in brief. What are load balancers and why are they required? Well, the answer is quite simple. Load balancers are required to distribute the data traffic between multiple servers. For instance, let us take a website with a huge user base. A lot of traffic is incident on such websites. A single dedicated server will not be able to take such amounts of load, no matter how high capacity server you install. Hence, you distribute the traffic among multiple servers that perform simultaneously. The total load is incident on the load balancer that routes it to the servers according to the load they are currently handling. In this discussion, the term "traffic" and "load" are used interchangeably. If you want to increase the number of servers, you can just connect them to load balancer which provides flexibility. A load balancer is just a server with NIC card and multiple ports to which the servers can be connected.
Hardware and Software Load Balancers
With the evolution of load balancers, the distinction between hardware and software load balancers are diminishing slowly. A hardware load balancer also termed as Application Delivery Controller sometimes is the one you buy from a known organization containing a specific configuration for load balancing along with the hardware. On the other hand, software load balancer is only software, mostly open source, that you install on your chosen hardware. Hence, the main question is that do you want to buy the whole package of load balancer which you just have to install or do you want to build the load balancer yourself. Here a some of the comparisons to help you choose between the two.
Configuration
The hardware load balancers like F5 come with advanced features and configuration. They are a total solution for most of the load balancing needs. The software load balancers are not so superior and take time for installation and configuration.
Support
If you something goes wrong who would you turn for support? The hardware load balancer companies provide 24/7 support and you can contact them in case of an issue. Whereas, in the case of software load balancers, you own the hardware. In the case of an issue, you have to handle it yourself.
Flexibility
Software load balancers are surely more flexible than their hardware counterparts. You can choose the hardware with your desired configuration. You can choose a superior configuration than provided by hardware load balancing companies and reduce latency. Also, you know the needs of your network more than anyone else.
Cost
At last, it all comes down to cost. The hardware load balancers cost more than software load balancers as they come with the hardware. Most of the software load balancers are open source or available at very cheap prices.
Hence, you can choose your load balancers accordingly. It all comes down to price vs convenience argument. Hardware load balancers are a more convenient option if you are willing to pay more.