Overprovisioned Load Balancer

Service Category

Networking

Cloud Provider

OCI

Service Name

OCI Load Balancer

Inefficiency Type

Overprovisioned Networking Resource

Explanation

Load balancers incur charges based on provisioned bandwidth shape, even if backend traffic is minimal. If traffic is low, or if only one backend server is configured, the load balancer may be oversized or unnecessary, especially in test or staging environments.

Relevant Billing Model

Charged based on bandwidth and minimum bandwidth shape (Mbps), not just request volume.

Detection

Review traffic metrics to assess actual vs. provisioned throughput
Identify load balancers with only one or inactive backend servers
Check for load balancers in non-production environments with little to no usage
Evaluate whether an Application Gateway or direct instance access is more appropriate

Remediation

Downgrade to a smaller bandwidth shape if supported
Decommission underutilized load balancers
Consolidate redundant load balancers across applications or environments

Relevant Documentation

Load Balancing Pricing and Shapes
Managing Load Balancers

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