Why are client load balancers such as tape?

Question

Netflix uses tape, which in their terms is a "client load balancer." What are the precedents and benefits of client-side load balancing over a traditional load balancer? Are tapes and other OSS Netflix AWS services specific or can be used in other contexts?

Answer 1

As already mentioned, using the tape, you do not need an additional load balancer. You can also configure the balancing algorithm for each client in different ways, if you need. At first I was a little surprised, but that makes a lot of sense.

Currently, Spring Cloud, which uses NetSSL OSS for the most part, is not AWS dependent.

I made a small POC, which you can check here if you want.

Answer 2

One reason for using a client load balancer might be performance. With balancing on the client side, you can directly contact the desired service using one network hop (after the initial opening of the course); with a traditional load balancer you need two jumps - see my very unprofessional test .

Unfortunately, I do not have such a lot of experience with Netflix OOS, I just exit documentation that can work at least Spring Cloud Netflix also, for example, on cloud foundry equipment.