# Why Dropbox Built the Robinhood Load Balancer

DevFeed: [Why Dropbox Built the Robinhood Load Balancer](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/how-dropbox-saved-millions-of-dollars-by-building-a-load-balancer-17971.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://newsletter.betterstack.com/p/how-dropbox-saved-millions-of-dollars>)

Author: Richard Oliver Bray

Published: 2024-12-11T14:01:03Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Hacking Scale by Better Stack](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/hacking-scale-by-better-stack.md>)

Topics: [Cloud](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cloud.md>), [Algorithms](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/algorithms.md>), [cloud-infrastructure](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cloud-infrastructure.md>), [servers](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/servers.md>), [real-time](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/real-time.md>)

Tags: [cloud](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cloud.md>), [dropbox](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/dropbox.md>), [hardware](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/hardware.md>), [load-balancing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/load-balancing.md>), [network](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/network.md>), [real-time](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/real-time.md>), [round-robin](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/round-robin.md>), [server](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/server.md>), [servers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/servers.md>)

## AI overview

The article explains how Dropbox handled overloaded virtual servers with different hardware capabilities. Its traditional fixed-weight round-robin approach could not distribute load evenly, so the team built Robinhood, a dynamic weighted round-robin load balancer with gRPC support.

## Source excerpt

Dropbox saved resources by creating a superior version of a tool everyone uses