Client-Side Load Balancing
Client-side load balancing is a distributed computing pattern where the client application (or a library within it) is responsible for distributing requests across multiple instances of a service, rather than relying on a dedicated load balancer server. It involves the client dynamically selecting a target server from a list of available instances, often based on factors like health, latency, or load. This approach is commonly used in microservices architectures to improve scalability, resilience, and performance by reducing single points of failure and network hops.
Developers should learn and use client-side load balancing when building distributed systems, especially microservices, to enhance fault tolerance and reduce latency by avoiding an extra hop to a central load balancer. It is particularly useful in cloud-native environments with dynamic service discovery (e.g., using service registries like Eureka or Consul), as it allows clients to adapt quickly to changes in service instances. Use cases include high-traffic web applications, real-time systems, and scenarios where minimizing response time is critical, such as in financial trading platforms or streaming services.