An important consideration in improving the performance of a distributed computer system is the balancing of the load between the host computers. Load balancing may be either static or dynamic; static balancing strategies are generally based on information about the system's average behavior rather than its actual current state, while dynamic strategies react to the current state when making transfer decisions. Although it is often conjectured that dynamic load balancing outperforms static, careful investigation shows that this view is not always valid. Recent research on the problem of optimal static load balancing is clearly and intuitively presented, with coverage of distributed computer system models, problem formulation in load balancing, and effective algorithms for implementing optimization. Providing a thorough understanding of both static and dynamic strategies, this book will be of interest to all researchers and practitioners working to optimize performance in distributed computer systems.