5 ways Service Extensions callouts can improve your Cloud Load Balancing environment

In today’s dynamic digital infrastructure landscape, where reliability, scalability, and performance are paramount, Google Cloud Application Load Balancers have emerged as indispensable tools for ensuring connectivity and an optimal user experience. Using Service Extensions callouts, organizations can customize and extend their edge environment using gRPC calls to user-managed services during data processing. Service Extensions callouts are now generally available for all Google Cloud Application Load balancers, including the global external, regional external, regional internal, and cross-regional internal load balancers.

In this blog, we delve into the benefits of Service Extensions callouts for Application Load Balancers, exploring how they optimize performance, bolster security, and foster greater operational efficiency.

1. Enhanced traffic management and optimization

Service Extensions callouts let you implement advanced traffic management strategies, optimizing backend selection based on near-real-time data and dynamic conditions. You can intelligently route traffic and prioritize critical workloads by using callouts to execute custom logic or integrate with external services. This dynamic approach to traffic management helps ensure optimal performance and resource utilization.

2. Improved security

Service Extensions callouts let businesses implement custom security policies, access controls, and threat-mitigation measures directly within their load balancing infrastructure. Whether performing real-time threat analysis, enforcing encryption protocols, or integrating with security tools and services, callouts provide businesses the flexibility and agility to adapt to evolving security challenges.

3. Tight integration with ecosystem tools

One key advantage of Service Extensions callouts is their integration with a wide range of ecosystem tools, platforms, and services. You can use callouts to connect with monitoring and analytics tools to gain insights into performance metrics, integrate with security services for enhanced application protection, or inject business logic to improve the scalability and resilience of applications, helping businesses leverage their broader digital ecosystem.

“As API-centric applications continue to surge in popularity, safeguarding the security of API endpoints is a paramount goal for organizations migrating workloads to the cloud. At Palo Alto Networks, we are dedicated to securing all aspects of our customers’ cloud journeys, which is why we are thrilled to partner with Google Cloud by integrating Prisma Cloud with Service Extensions, offering our customers unmatched capabilities through intelligent insights and security for API endpoint traffic.” – Elad Koren, VP of Product Management, Palo Alto Networks“

4. Customization and flexibility

Service Extensions callouts bring extensive customization and flexibility to a load balancing environment, letting you tailor your configurations to suit your unique requirements and use cases e.g., implementing custom routing algorithms, defining granular traffic-management policies, or integrating with proprietary systems and services. With callouts, organizations can innovate rapidly, experiment with new ideas, and iterate on their load balancing strategies.

5. Improved operational efficiency and costs

By streamlining workflows, automating repetitive tasks, and optimizing resource utilization, Service Extensions callouts can contribute to greater operational efficiency and cost optimization. By offloading compute-intensive operations to callouts, you can reduce the burden on your core infrastructure, improve performance, and lower operational costs. Additionally, leveraging callouts for load balancing helps optimize resource utilization, minimize latency, and delivers superior user experiences.

Take your Application Load Balancers further

In short, Service Extensions callouts represent a powerful enhancement to Google Cloud Application Load Balancers, helping you optimize performance, bolster security, and foster greater operational efficiency. To learn more and get started, please visit the Service Extensions home page.