Choosing which Azure load balancer to place in front of your cloud application is an important decision as its functionality can have an impact on user experience, reliability, and security. While there are 90+ 3rd-party LB options available (i.e. F5, Nginx, Citrix), most of the time a Microsoft-based solution can be used.
Understanding your application requirements and the features available from the four different Azure LB offerings can help you achieve the best solution for your needs. In this image, I've outlined some of the main features available in each.
Note: there's a neat tool in the Azure portal called, "Load balancing - help me choose" that guides you through a series of questions to provide the LB or combination of LB's that match your requirements. Use the portal search bar to find it.
About the author
- Hi there! I'm a Cloud Engineer & SRE, documenting my transition into AI/ML Platform Engineering. I write technical deep-dives, hands-on implementation guides, CLI helper scripts, and visual architectures covering cloud, infrastructure, orchestration, governance, and modern AI runtimes.
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Cloud Architectures
Focuses on high-level system design, provider translations, and architectural reference patterns across multi-cloud ecosystems. Covers service mappings between major cloud providers (AWS to Azure), and structural design choices between managed cloud platforms and self-hosted AI compute infrastructure.
