When you’re implementing or upgrading internet circuits, your conversation should include load balancing.
Bandwidth load balancing is the purposeful distribution of your internet traffic among multiple internet circuits. To provide the most efficient connection for all of your devices and applications within your network, you can use a layer 7 analysis to determine what needs prioritized connection and what is less critical.
Think of load balancing as a highway during rush hour.
You should only be in the passing lane if you’re going above the speed limit. The far-right lane is for cars who need to exit soon or are rule followers.
What happens if you want to stick to the speed limit but drive in the fast lane?
You’ll certainly have some crude gestures waved your way, but you’ll also be taking up the room that other fast drivers need.
Maybe you can take your time on your morning commute, but if we give those speedsters the benefit of the doubt, we can assume they have somewhere they urgently need to be.
On the other hand, if you are running late but stuck in the slow lane, you’re not going to get to your destination on time. (Take this from someone who is chronically late.)
The good news is that the brilliant engineers at The KR Group have configured load balancing within the office’s network. So even if I’m still frustrated with traffic when I sit at my desk, I don’t have to add internet problems to the mix.
The KR Group doesn’t just keep this secret to ourselves, though. Load balancing is something we’ve helped many of our customers implement so that they can also enjoy the benefits of an efficient network.
The promise of a more efficient internet connection — and in turn, better business productivity — piques the interest of most people. However, you still have follow-up questions, such as:
- What does bandwidth load balancing do?
- Why do you need to load balance?
- What applications need faster, more reliable internet?
- How do you balance the load of your network?
In this article, you’ll read a lot about internet redundancy as it’s closely related to load balancing. If you’re unfamiliar with this term or could use a refresher, read “Implementing Redundant Business Internet Connections” first.
What Does Bandwidth Load Balancing Do?
In a nutshell, load balancing provides your internet traffic with the best option for connectivity. 
This is predetermined by network configuration to ensure mission-critical or latency-sensitive requests (such as VOIP or IoT) have the best connection available to them.
If your router sees traffic coming from a network component you’ve determined is critical, it will be directed to the best path for connection.
A common example of how load balancing is implemented is divvying internet tasks between fiber and broadband circuits.
While fiber is generally considered the preferred circuit for businesses because it’s consistently fast, it comes with a higher price tag. As a result, many companies will only pay for the fiber bandwidth they need for sensitive applications and supplement with a broadband connection for the rest of their bandwidth needs.
Keep in mind that load balancing does not combine your connections. For example, if you have two 10 Mbps connections, you don’t download files at 20 Mbps. You’ll still have 10 Mb of bandwidth to use.
Why Do You Need to Load Balance?
Configuring load balance means your devices don’t connect to a circuit at random.
You put thought behind this decision and purposely design your network based on which devices or applications should connect to a specific circuit.
The best way to implement load balancing over two or more circuits is to have contracts with multiple ISPs.
Most businesses opt for a fiber circuit and a broadband circuit. They’ll dedicate high-priority, sensitive traffic through the fiber connection. Meanwhile, the traffic that is less sensitive to delays can be routed through the broadband circuit.
As a benefit, this setup can also provide business redundancy. Just make sure you’re using separate ISPs that don’t share lines.
What Applications Need Faster, More Reliable Internet?
We’ve all shouted at our computer screen as Google takes a long time to load search results or when a YouTube video keeps buffering. 
While annoying, there is no actual loss for those problems. In your business, there’s much more at stake than finding out who won the Tiger’s baseball game last night or playing Baby Shark for your kid.
- What happens if the VPN connection keeps timing out while trying to upload a file before a deadline?
- What happens if your IoT applications can’t consistently connect to the network?
- What happens if your call drops as you’re about to close a deal?
All of these have the potential to cost you money, so they must have priority within the network.
These are general examples of what you should consider giving access to the more robust internet circuit. However, depending on your business and what you find important, you could add other applications to the list.
How Do I Balance My Internet Load?
Finally, let’s talk about how you put all of this in place.
Your first option is to go into your router’s GUI (graphical user interface) and configure how you want traffic divided between your internet circuits.
You’ll want to make sure the router you purchase is capable of this feature, but most enterprise-grade devices are.
Your other option is to manually configure routers or Linux servers and associate them with specific applications and internet circuits.
Getting Started with Internet Load Balancing
Keep in mind that you don’t have to go into the process of load balancing alone.
If you recognize that your business could benefit from implementing redundant internet circuits and dividing and prioritizing traffic to those circuits, you have options to put this in place.
You can make these changes yourself, and go ahead and route your VPN, VOIP, and IoT traffic through the faster, more stable connection.
However, if you aren’t sure if you have the knowledge or time to complete this project, you can call in for help.
An IT consulting company can conduct a layer 7 analysis to discover how your users access the internet. With that information, the consultants can make data-driven decisions on how to implement load balancing.
They’ll take care of the configuration necessary to implement load balancing and can even train members of your IT department on how to replicate what they did.
To get started with a layer 7 analysis — the first step of implementing load balancing with The KR Group — fill out this brief questionnaire and tell us more about your IT environment.
One of our technology experts will be in touch shortly to review your needs and answer any questions.
