Use of Docker Containerization and Load Balancer to Scale a Flask Application

Cloud computing offers immediate access to shared resources, transforming business operations. To enhance cloud-based applications' efficiency and scalability, various technologies have been developed. Docker simplifies deployment by packaging applications into containers. Load balancing distributes network traffic across servers, preventing overload. Flask, a Python web framework, facilitates quick web application development. Nginx, a web server and reverse proxy, manages load balancing, SSL termination, and caching, boosting performance and scalability. This study presents a system to improve the Etaka application's performance. The system addresses inefficiencies in processing multiple requests on a single server by using load balancing and Docker. Flask, Gunicorn, Docker, and Nginx are combined to enhance server performance. Nginx automates request distribution to multiple servers. Experiments show the load-balanced approach significantly reduces processing time. Nginx improves response time for high request volumes and concurrency, demonstrating a 31% improvement over a single server. This is the first study combining Docker containerization and load balancing, tested with 1000 requests and 50 concurrencies.