Load Balancing and Network Analysis

Load balancing services in Azure distribute incoming network requests for customer applications or resources among multiple hosts in Azure to provide high availability and scalability. Azure network analysis services also help optimize and troubleshoot networks servicing Azure resources.

Load balancing services discussed in this section include the following:

• Application Gateway
• Load Balancer
• Traffic Manager
• Front Door
• Content Delivery Network (CDN).

Network analysis services include the following:

• Network Watcher
• Internet Analyzer.

Application Gateway

Azure Application Gateway balances Web traffic (a function often called “layer 7 load balancing”) and performs server-side processing of secure (HTTPS) connections. One tier of the service integrates an Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) component, called Regional WAF, that filters incoming traffic for security.

Application Gateway would typically be used for security, routing, and load balancing for Internet-facing Web applications and services within a specific Azure region. It performs some of the same security functions as Azure Front Door, but the costlier Azure Front Door balances traffic across a global network of locations with precached content. Application Gateway can offer more control over load balancing and better security for Web applications and services than Azure Load Balancer but is limited to Web traffic and imposes higher performance impact and cost.