ngrok Launches Global Server Load Balancing

SAN FRANCISCO — SEPTEMBER 14, 2023 — ngrok, the API-first ingress-as-a-service platform, today announced the launch of ngrok Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB). The ngrok GSLB distributes traffic across connected servers in multiple geographies to enhance application performance and resiliency without adding any overhead to ITOps.

Without a GSLB, application performance can experience high latency due to ineffective traffic routing through suboptimal regions and long client-to-TLS termination point distances. Additionally, if a point of presence (PoP) shuts down, there is no failover to reroute client traffic to an operational PoP, causing service disruptions.

The ngrok GSLB optimizes application performance and improves resiliency and high availability. It intelligently routes client and agent traffic to the PoP with the lowest latency and terminates TLS connections at ngrok edges closest to the client. If an entire PoP is unavailable, the ngrok GSLB provides geo-aware load balancing and failover capabilities that reroute traffic to another operational PoP.

“The launch of ngrok Global Server Load Balancing sets a new standard for application performance and resilience,” said Alan Shreve, founder and CEO of ngrok. “The ngrok GSLB reflects our commitment to delivering solutions that simplify complex networking challenges and improve application delivery across every stage of the development life cycle, from dev and test to production environments.”

Additional benefits of the ngrok GSLB include:

• Reduced Operational Overhead: Traditional appliance-based GSLB demands substantial resources from NetOps teams due to the complexity of deployment and ongoing maintenance. The ngrok GSLB is an out-of-the-box, hosted solution that’s active by default and requires no additional configuration.

• Simplified Application Delivery: Now, ITOps teams can use ngrok as their GSLB, firewall and reverse proxy to reduce tool sprawl.

• Instant Availability of New Locations: When a service is added in a new region or a configuration change is made at the edge, it immediately becomes available across the ngrok Global Network.

• Origin Network Protection: With the ngrok GSLB, there is no need to create a demilitarized zone (DMZ) to secure apps. ngrok enforces security policies at the edge, ensuring unauthorized requests are instantly blocked and only valid requests are sent to services.

To further boost performance and improve resiliency for applications and APIs delivered by ngrok, the company has also expanded its Global Network with a new PoP on the West Coast of the U.S.

Visit the ngrok blog to learn more about the ngrok GSLB.