What does an application load balancer primarily manage for a high-traffic website?

An application load balancer primarily manages network traffic for a high-traffic website. Its main function is to distribute incoming application or web traffic across multiple servers, ensuring that no single server becomes overwhelmed by requests. This distribution helps improve the performance and availability of applications, as it allows for better resource utilization and redundancy.

By effectively managing network traffic, the application load balancer can also help to maintain consistent response times and enhance the user experience, especially during peak usage periods. Load balancers can route traffic based on various algorithms, monitor server health, and redirect requests to the most capable or least busy servers, ultimately contributing to the site's efficiency and scalability.

This focus on managing network traffic is essential for high-traffic websites, where the volume of users can fluctuate significantly, necessitating an agile response to service demands.