# Cloud Load Balancing

> Distribute traffic across multiple instances for high availability

- **Category**: Cloud
- **Subcategory**: gcp
- **Canonical URL**: https://designpattern.fyi/patterns/gcp_load_balancing/

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## Description
Cloud Load Balancing distributes traffic across multiple instances of your applications for high availability and reliability. It supports global load balancing, SSL/TLS termination, protocol-aware routing, and integration with Cloud CDN. Includes HTTP(S), TCP/UDP, and internal load balancing options.


## Use Cases
Use when scaling applications globally, ensuring high availability, or optimizing performance across regions.





## Trade-offs


### Advantages

- Global load balancing

- Integrated with other GCP services

- SSL/TLS termination

- Health checking and auto-healing




### Considerations & Drawbacks

- Additional infrastructure cost

- Configuration complexity

- Potential single point of failure

- Requires proper health checks







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**Reference**: [Original Source](https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing)