Ballast is a tool for balancing user load across SSH servers based on configurable criteria such as CPU load and system availability. Ballast is invoked as part of the SSH login process, hence has access to the user name, which is not available in traditional load balancers. This gives ballast the unique ability to perform user-specific load balancing, which has several benefits including separating users who have historically generated high loads and providing a common login interface to users who may be separated based on other criteria such as system accessibility. Ballast includes a simple client, a lightweight data server, and a data collection agent.