If you have a native service that is hosted at two or more endpoints, you can use the load balancing option in the Routing Step to distribute requests among the endpoints or you can use the content-based or context-based options to route different types of messages to different endpoints.

Using the content-based routing option, you can route messages to different endpoints based on specific values that appear in the request message. You might use this capability, for example, to determine which operation the consuming application has requested and route requests for complex operations to an endpoint on a fast machine.

Using the context-based routing option, you can route messages based on criteria such as the time of day and/or the identity of the consuming application. For example, you might use this capability to route requests from certain high-priority consumers to endpoints on a fast machine.