Early-generation server load-balancing technology has proven to be an invaluable asset, especially for organizations hosting widely utilized Web applications. By operating as a virtual entry point to such applications, load balancing provides an opportunity to execute a variety of algorithms for splitting the processing load among back-end servers. In addition, periodic polling to establish the status of participating nodes can be used not only to fine-tune the load distribution but also to avoid directing traffic to servers that are actually offline. In other words, server load balancers (SLBs) are a simple yet highly effective means to scale an application e...