What is Load-balancing and Do I Need It? - Hardware vs. Software – A Comparison

Pros

Cons

Software Load-balancing

• Less expensive than hardware solutions.
• Some packages have many more configuration and customization options allowing specific tailoring to your needs.

• Most packages cannot handle large sites or complex networks.
• Packages that will support larger systems require an abundant amount of hardware.

Hardware Load-balancing

• Hardware-centric approach is typically more robust than software options.
• Processes traffic at the network level, which is nominally more efficient than software decryption.
• Work with any OS or platform.

• Higher costs than normally associated with software based solutions.