Networking
Cloud Load Balancing
Global, scalable, fully managed load balancing
AWS equivalent
ALB / NLB / Global Accelerator
AWS → GCP: Key Differences
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GCP HTTP(S) Load Balancer is GLOBAL: one load balancer, one IP, routes to backends in any region.
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Anycast IP: single global IP address. Traffic routes to the nearest healthy backend automatically.
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Google Front End (GFE): traffic hits Google's network edge (PoP) immediately, then travels Google's private backbone.
Key Concepts to Know
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HTTP(S) Load Balancer: global, Layer 7, supports URL maps, SSL termination.
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TCP/SSL Proxy Load Balancer: global, Layer 4, for non-HTTP TCP traffic.
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Network Load Balancer: regional, Layer 4, preserves client IP, very high throughput.
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Internal Load Balancer: for traffic between services within your VPC.
- 5
Cloud Armor integrates directly with HTTP(S) LB for WAF/DDoS protection.
DCE Interview Tips
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Lead with the global IP story: 'One IP address, customers in Bangkok and London both hit the nearest Google PoP.'
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For Thai e-commerce peak traffic: 'The HTTP(S) Load Balancer scales to millions of requests per second automatically. No pre-warming needed.'
Common Gotchas
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SSL certificates: GCP-managed certs auto-renew. But provisioning can take 24-72h for new domains.
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HTTP(S) LB has a minimum cost (~$18/month for the forwarding rule).