AI engineering glossary · Computing foundations
What is load balancer?
Load balancer: A system that spreads incoming requests across several servers so that no single one is overwhelmed, improving capacity and availability. If a server fails, the balancer stops sending traffic to it.
Load balancer: an example
A shopping site sends each visitor to one of five identical servers via a load balancer, so a sale does not crash it.
Related terms
More Computing foundations terms
- Local area network
- Localhost
- Logic gate
- Loopback interface
- MAC address
- Machine code
- Machine epsilon
- Memory bandwidth
Where you learn it
Load balancer is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.