Load balancing distributes incoming requests across multiple servers or services. The goal is to prevent overloading individual systems, optimize response times, and increase fault tolerance. Load balancers operate at various network layers — from Layer 4 (TCP/UDP) to Layer 7 (HTTP/HTTPS). For your ISMS, load balancing is an important availability measure: if a server fails, the load balancer automatically redirects traffic to the remaining systems. Ensure the load balancer itself does not become a single point of failure — deploy it redundantly. Configure health checks so that defective servers are removed from rotation promptly.