AWS Application Load Balancer
AWS Application Load Balancer (ALB) is a managed load balancing service provided by Amazon Web Services that operates at the application layer (Layer 7) of the OSI model. It intelligently routes HTTP and HTTPS traffic to targets such as EC2 instances, containers, and IP addresses based on content like URL paths or host headers. It supports features like SSL/TLS termination, WebSocket, and HTTP/2, making it ideal for modern web applications.
Developers should use AWS Application Load Balancer when building scalable, microservices-based architectures or web applications that require advanced routing, such as A/B testing, canary deployments, or routing based on request content. It is essential for high-availability setups in AWS, as it distributes traffic across multiple targets, handles automatic scaling, and integrates seamlessly with services like AWS WAF for security and Auto Scaling groups for resilience.