Architecture Design - AWS Global Accelerator vs Load Balancer Endpoint

 🔁 AWS Global Accelerator vs Load Balancer Endpoint 

Feature	AWS Global Accelerator	ALB/NLB Endpoint
Scope	Global	Regional
IP Type	Global static IP	Regional DNS name
Routing Type	TCP/UDP (Layer 4)	HTTP/HTTPS/TCP (Layer 4/7)
Best For	Global low-latency and failover	Regional load distribution
Health Checks	Global and automatic rerouting	Regional only
DNS Caching Issues	Avoided (static IP)	DNS TTL delays during failover
Latency-based Routing	✅ Yes (Anycast + AWS backbone)	❌ No
Multi-Region Failover	✅ Built-in	❌ Requires Route 53 or custom logic
Web App Support	Works with ALB/NLB behind it	Direct web app routing
Price	Extra cost	Included with ALB/NLB

 

✅ When to Use AWS Global Accelerator 

Use Case	Why
Global Users accessing app in multiple regions	Directs traffic to nearest healthy AWS region using AWS backbone
Need static IP address for APIs or VPNs	Provides global, static, anycast IPs
Multi-region active-passive or active-active apps	Handles health checks + automatic rerouting
High performance/low latency for gaming, trading, video	Uses AWS global network (vs. public internet)
Accelerate APIs behind ALB/NLB	Faster DNS resolution + TLS handshake performance

 

✅ When to Use Load Balancer Endpoint (ALB/NLB) 

Use Case	Why
Regional apps with users mostly in one geography	Simpler, cost-effective
Intra-region routing (EKS, ECS, EC2 apps)	No need for global reach
Apps behind CloudFront or Route 53 latency routing	Already using DNS-level failover
HTTPS-based web apps or REST APIs	ALB provides path/host routing and WAF integration

 

🧠 Architecture Recommendation 

Scenario	Recommendation
✅ Global multi-region app with health-based routing	Global Accelerator + ALB/NLB
✅ Low-latency trading or real-time gaming	Global Accelerator + NLB
✅ Public REST API for US customers only	ALB with WAF
✅ Internal microservice communication	Internal ALB or NLB only
✅ Multi-region failover for S3 proxy or backend	Global Accelerator or Route53 + ALB/NLB

 

🖼️ Combined Setup Example 

sql 

CopyEdit 

 Users (global) 
      | 
Global Accelerator (Static IP, Anycast) 
      | 
┌─────┴─────────┐ 
|               | 
ALB (us-east-1)  ALB (eu-west-1) 
|               | 
ECS / EKS       ECS / EKS