FYI, my 2 cents:
- The Kemp free load balancer and Network Chuck’s video are focused on home/lab use. The throughput limitation does not make this commercially viable unless you have a small business and website. Network Chuck is also focused on the reverse proxy use case which is just one function that a load balancer can perform.
- Kemp is a large and well established company. Their load balancer is solid. It is designed for ease of use with full functionality. For privacy, the company adheres to GDPR standards as well as any local standard (based on your location) for data privacy and security.
- Speaking of functionality, that is the tradeoff versus NGINX(+) or HAProxy. The Kemp free load balancer is a full featured load balancer that includes global server load balancing (GSLB), edge authentication (2FA and SSO), and web application firewall (WAF) for no cost. This is all based on the same commercial product that Kemp sells.
- Security is solid. Load balancers, in general are designed to provide security. Network Chuck did not incorporate additional authentication like 2FA in his configuration, but he could have. WAF could also be added with the OWASP Core Rule Set for more application security.
- While the software is not open source, the vendor is open and available for help and feedback.
Disclaimer: I currently work for Kemp and have worked for and with many different load balancing vendors for 20+ years.
-Frank