What is the most cost-effective network tier and load balancing configuration for an application hosted in the Europe-west2 region serving users exclusively in the United Kingdom?

Choosing a regional load balancer in conjunction with the Standard Tier for an application hosted in the Europe-west2 region is cost-effective for several reasons.

The Standard Tier is designed for applications that primarily target a specific region; it allows for lower costs compared to the Premium Tier while still offering reliable performance. Since the application will be serving users exclusively from the United Kingdom, utilizing a regional load balancer ensures that incoming traffic is efficiently distributed across instances that are located close to the users, thereby minimizing latency and optimizing response times without incurring unnecessary costs associated with global services.

By using a regional load balancer, you also avoid the higher charges associated with cross-regional latency and global traffic, which are inherent in global load balancers. This approach allows for optimal performance and cost management when the geographic scope of your user base is limited to a specific area, as it leverages the infrastructure effectively within that region.

In summary, this configuration provides the necessary capacity and speed at the most economical price point, making it an ideal choice for applications with a localized user base.