Setting up load balancers only for backend.

Heya @sleepingaquamarinemantaray,

This is a good way of approach! Such approach would allow you to scale your application quite easily and even provide lean way if something happenned and one of the backend droplet got high load.

Now, what I usually ask people is are you sure you are going to need so many Droplets. If you expect heavy traffic right off the bat, then by no means, go ahead. However if you thing that at the beginning there wouldn’t that much pressure on the Droplets, start smaller.

Also this depends on your budget, if you have a bigger budget, then by any means, do it like that from the beginning.

Hey!

Your proposed architecture, with a dedicated frontend Droplet and a load balancer directing traffic to two CPU-optimized backend Droplets, is indeed a solid approach!

Using a load balancer for your backend services allows you to scale your application more efficiently. As demand increases, you can add more backend Droplets to handle the load without any changes to your frontend configuration.

With two backend Droplets, your application becomes more resilient. If one Droplet becomes unavailable, the load balancer can redirect traffic to the remaining healthy Droplet, ensuring your application remains up and running.

By choosing CPU-optimized Droplets for the backend, you’re ensuring that your server can handle compute-intensive tasks more efficiently. This is particularly beneficial if your backend processes require significant computational power.

While there’s a cost associated with running a load balancer and CPU-optimized Droplets, this setup allows you to allocate resources more effectively based on your application’s needs, potentially saving money in the long run by optimizing for performance and avoiding overprovisioning.

However, managing infrastructure like load balancers and Droplets requires a good deal of operational effort, including setup, monitoring, and maintenance. If you prefer to focus more on development and less on infrastructure management, you might want to consider DigitalOcean’s App Platform:

https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/app-platform/

The DigitalOcean’s App Platform simplifies the deployment process by handling the infrastructure, application runtime, and dependencies for you. It automatically scales your application, provides built-in security features, and ensures high availability. By deploying on the App Platform, you can enjoy the following benefits:

• You won’t need to manage Droplets or load balancers directly. The platform takes care of the underlying infrastructure for you.
• The App Platform can automatically scale your application horizontally (adding more instances) or vertically (upgrading to more powerful instances) based on traffic patterns.
• It integrates with your GitHub or GitLab repository, automatically building and deploying your application upon each push to your designated branch, simplifying your development workflow.

Considering these benefits, the App Platform could be a good alternative to directly managing Droplets and load balancers, especially if you’re looking to reduce operational overhead and focus more on building your application.

Hope that this helps!

Best,

Bobby