Terms

Load Balancing

Load balancing is the method of distributing network and application traffic across multiple servers to ensure no single server becomes overwhelmed. It acts as a traffic manager, sitting between clients and a server farm, intelligently routing requests to the most suitable server. This process improves an application's availability, scalability, and overall performance by preventing bottlenecks.

Types of Load Balancing

Load balancers are classified by the network layer where they operate. Layer 4 balancers use network data like IP addresses to direct traffic. Layer 7 balancers are more advanced, inspecting application content like HTTP headers for smarter routing.

They also exist as physical hardware appliances or flexible software solutions, which are common in cloud settings. For global applications, DNS or global server load balancing directs users to the geographically closest server, reducing latency and improving performance.

Benefits of Load Balancing

Implementing load balancing brings a host of advantages that are crucial for modern applications. By distributing traffic effectively, it enhances the overall user experience and strengthens the underlying infrastructure. The primary benefits revolve around reliability, performance, and security.

  • Availability: Ensures applications remain online and accessible by rerouting traffic away from failed or overloaded servers.
  • Scalability: Allows applications to handle high traffic volumes by distributing requests and enabling the easy addition of more servers.
  • Performance: Improves response times and reduces latency by preventing server bottlenecks and optimizing resource use.
  • Security: Enhances protection by distributing traffic to minimize the impact of DDoS attacks and hiding backend infrastructure.

Load Balancing vs. Load Sharing

While often used interchangeably, load balancing and load sharing have distinct functions and applications.

  • Load Balancing: This method intelligently distributes traffic across servers using algorithms to ensure high availability and performance. It's ideal for enterprises with mission-critical applications that need to handle high traffic volumes, prevent downtime, and scale seamlessly. The primary goal is to optimize resource use and maintain application health.
  • Load Sharing: This approach splits traffic across multiple network links or paths, often without deep inspection of server health. Its main advantage is aggregating bandwidth and providing redundancy at the network level. It's typically preferred for network infrastructure optimization rather than application-level traffic management.

Load Balancing Algorithms

A load balancing algorithm is the set of rules a load balancer uses to determine the best server for each client request. These methods range from simple, fixed patterns to complex, dynamic assessments of server health. The right algorithm optimizes resource use and ensures high availability.

  • Static: Follows fixed rules, like round-robin, regardless of the current server state.
  • Dynamic: Considers the real-time state of servers, such as active connections or response time.
  • Hashing: Uses client data, like an IP address, to consistently route requests to the same server.

Common Load Balancing Tools

Various tools are available to implement load balancing for different infrastructure needs.

  • Hardware: Dedicated physical appliances offering high performance for on-premise data centers.
  • Software: Versatile applications like NGINX that provide flexible, server-based traffic management.
  • Services: Cloud-based solutions from providers like AWS that automate scaling and management.

Frequently Asked Questions about Load Balancing

How does load balancing handle SSL/TLS encryption?

Load balancers can perform SSL termination, decrypting traffic before it reaches backend servers. This offloads cryptographic work from the servers but centralizes certificate management on the load balancer, which must be securely configured to protect sensitive data.

Doesn't a load balancer create a single point of failure?

It can, but this is mitigated by deploying load balancers in a high-availability (HA) pair. A passive or standby load balancer automatically takes over if the primary one fails, ensuring uninterrupted service and eliminating this potential bottleneck.

When is session persistence (sticky sessions) necessary?

Session persistence is crucial for stateful applications where a user's session data is stored on a specific server, like an e-commerce shopping cart. It ensures all requests from that user are routed to the same server, maintaining a consistent experience.

Other terms

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Marketing Play

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AI-Powered Marketing

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AI-Powered Marketing

Data-Driven Marketing

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Sales Playbook

A sales playbook is a guide that outlines your sales process, best practices, and tools to help reps sell more efficiently and consistently.

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Data Warehousing

Data warehousing is the process of storing and managing large sets of data from various sources for business intelligence and reporting purposes.

Data Warehousing

Smarketing

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Smarketing

Lead Management

Lead management is the process of capturing, nurturing, and qualifying leads to guide them from initial interest to sales-ready.

Lead Management

Email Deliverability

Email deliverability is the ability for your emails to successfully land in your recipients' inboxes instead of their spam folders.

Email Deliverability

Application Programming Interface

An Application Programming Interface (API) is a set of rules that lets different software applications talk to each other and share information.

Application Programming Interface

Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance (QA) is the systematic process of ensuring a product or service meets specified quality standards from development to delivery.

Quality Assurance

Customer Retention Cost

Customer Retention Cost (CRC) is the total amount a company spends to keep an existing customer over a certain period of time.

Customer Retention Cost

Regression Testing

Regression testing ensures that new code changes don’t negatively impact existing features. It's a key step to maintain software quality after updates.

Regression Testing

Cross-Selling

Cross-selling is a sales tactic of encouraging customers to purchase products or services that are related to what they're already buying.

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Predictive Lead Scoring

Predictive lead scoring uses AI to analyze data and rank leads by their likelihood to convert, helping sales teams prioritize their efforts.

Predictive Lead Scoring

Sales Manager

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Sales Manager

Lead Enrichment Tools

Lead enrichment tools are platforms that automatically add missing data to your leads, like contact info, firmographics, and buying signals.

Lead Enrichment Tools

B2C2B

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Draw on Sales Commission

A draw on commission is an advance payment a salesperson receives against future earnings, which is later repaid from earned commissions.

Draw on Sales Commission

System of Record

A System of Record (SoR) is the authoritative data source for a specific type of data. It acts as the single source of truth for an organization.

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Email Verification

Email verification is the process of confirming that an email address is valid and deliverable, which helps improve campaign performance.

Email Verification

Net 30

Net 30 is a common payment term where a client has 30 calendar days from the invoice date to pay for goods or services in full.

Net 30

Revenue Operations (RevOps)

Revenue Operations (RevOps) is a business function that aligns a company's sales, marketing, and customer service teams to drive predictable revenue.

Revenue Operations (RevOps)

Behavioral Analytics

Learn about behavioral analytics, including implementing behavioral analytics successfully, & key metrics in behavioral analytics.

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Sales Process

A sales process is a structured set of steps that a sales team follows to move a prospect from an initial lead to a closed customer.

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Sales Objections

Sales objections are reasons or concerns raised by a potential customer as to why they are hesitant or unwilling to make a purchase.

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BANT Framework

Learn about BANT framework, including implementing BANT in sales strategy, advantages of the BANT methodology, & BANT vs. other qualification models.

BANT Framework

AI Sales Script Generator

An AI sales script generator is a tool that uses artificial intelligence to create personalized sales scripts for any outreach scenario.

AI Sales Script Generator

ETL

ETL, short for Extract, Transform, Load, is a data integration process for moving raw data from various sources to a central data warehouse.

ETL

Call for Proposal

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Call for Proposal

Account-Based Advertising

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Account-Based Advertising

Sales Forecast Accuracy

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Sales Forecast Accuracy

B2B Data Platform

Learn about B2B data platform, including key benefits of B2B data platforms, choosing the right B2B data platform, challenges in implementing B2B data platforms.

B2B Data Platform

Kanban

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Kanban

Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is the emotional commitment an employee has to their organization, motivating them to contribute to the company's success.

Employee Engagement

Buying Cycle

The buying cycle is the journey a customer takes from first realizing they have a need to making the final purchase decision.

Buying Cycle

Hybrid Sales Model

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Hybrid Sales Model

XML

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a markup language for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable.

XML

Sales Sequence

A sales sequence is a series of automated touchpoints sent to prospects over time to guide them through the sales funnel.

Sales Sequence

Territory Management

Territory management is the process of segmenting customers into groups by geography or other factors to optimize sales efforts and resources.

Territory Management

Data Cleansing

Data cleansing, or data scrubbing, is the process of detecting and correcting inaccurate records from a dataset to improve data quality.

Data Cleansing

Dialer

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Dialer

Expansion Revenue

Expansion revenue is the extra money a business makes from its current customers via upgrades, new products, or additional services.

Expansion Revenue

Value Statement

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Value Statement

Sales Engineer

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Sales Kickoff

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Order Management

Order management is the end-to-end process of tracking customer orders from placement to fulfillment, ensuring a seamless customer experience.

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Sales Conversion Rate

Sales conversion rate is the percentage of prospects who take a desired action, like making a purchase, turning them into customers.

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Sales Enablement

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Letter of Intent

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After-Sales Service

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Latency

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Latency

Deal-Flow

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Lead Enrichment Software

Lead enrichment software adds crucial data to your leads, like contact info and firmographics, to help you better understand and engage them.

Lead Enrichment Software

Reverse Logistics

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Edge Locations

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Sales Prospecting Software

Sales prospecting software automates the process of finding, contacting, and tracking potential customers to help sales teams build their pipeline.

Sales Prospecting Software

Challenger Sales

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Outside Sales

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Outside Sales

Product-Led Growth

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Product-Led Growth

Outbound Lead Generation

Outbound lead generation means proactively reaching out to potential customers who haven't yet expressed interest to introduce them to your brand.

Outbound Lead Generation

Touches

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Text message marketing

Text message marketing is a strategy where businesses send promotional messages, offers, and updates to customers via SMS or MMS.

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Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting computer systems, networks, and data from digital attacks, theft, and unauthorized access.

Cybersecurity

Account Management

Account management is the post-sales practice of building and nurturing long-term relationships with a company's most valuable clients.

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Batch Processing

Learn about batch processing, including benefits of batch processing, best practices for implementation, & common use cases.

Batch Processing

Logo Retention

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Bounce Rate

Learn about bounce rate, including understanding bounce rate implications, key factors affecting bounce rate, & reducing your bounce rate effectively.

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Applicant Tracking System

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Phishing Attacks

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Phishing Attacks

Regression Analysis

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Regression Analysis

Freemium Models

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Ad-hoc Reporting

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Ad-hoc Reporting

Contact Discovery

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Compounded Annual Growth Rate

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Compounded Annual Growth Rate

Account-Based Sales Development

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Account-Based Sales Development

Ballpark

Learn about ballpark, including estimating with ballpark figures, understanding ballpark estimates in sales, & ballpark estimates vs. precise quotes.

Ballpark

Omnichannel Marketing

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Omnichannel Marketing

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic, offering insights into user behavior and marketing effectiveness.

Google Analytics

Consideration Buying Stage

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Consideration Buying Stage

Sales Cycle

A sales cycle is the series of steps a company takes to close a new customer. It starts with prospecting and ends with a signed deal.

Sales Cycle

Marketing Funnel

The marketing funnel is a model illustrating the path potential customers take, from initial awareness to making a purchase.

Marketing Funnel

End of Day

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End of Day

High Availability

High availability (HA) describes a system's capacity to function continuously with minimal downtime, ensuring consistent operational performance.

High Availability

Sales Engagement

Sales engagement is the sum of all interactions between a seller and a prospect, aimed at building a relationship and moving a deal forward.

Sales Engagement

Brand Loyalty

Learn about brand loyalty, including how to build brand loyalty, benefits of brand loyalty, measuring brand loyalty, & strategies for increasing loyalty.

Brand Loyalty

Buyer Intent

Learn about buyer intent, including understanding buyer intent signals, strategies to capture buyer intent, & buyer intent vs. customer interest.

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Value Chain

A value chain is the series of business activities required to create and deliver a product or service, from conception to the final customer.

Value Chain

Objection

An objection is an explicit expression by a prospect that presents a barrier to moving forward in the sales process.

Objection

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a premium tool helping sales teams find and engage with the right leads and accounts on the LinkedIn network.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Performance Plan

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Performance Plan

Lead Velocity Rate

Lead Velocity Rate (LVR) is the growth rate of your qualified leads, measured month-over-month. It's a key indicator of future revenue.

Lead Velocity Rate

Buyer Intent Data

Learn about buyer intent data, including sourcing and interpreting buyer intent data, & key metrics in buyer intent analysis.

Buyer Intent Data

Lead Generation Software

Lead generation software helps businesses automate finding and capturing potential customers' contact information to build sales pipelines.

Lead Generation Software

Technographics

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Technographics

Forecasting

Forecasting uses historical data to make informed predictions about future trends, helping businesses anticipate outcomes and plan accordingly.

Forecasting

Average Revenue per Account

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Average Revenue per Account

Pay-per-Click (PPC)

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Pay-per-Click (PPC)

Electronic Signatures

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Electronic Signatures

Cloud-based CRM

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Cloud-based CRM

Account

An account is a company or organization that you're targeting for sales. It can be a prospective, current, or even a past customer.

Account