Data traffic is intelligently steered by an adaptive load balancer through a software defined network (SDN) to which the load balancer is operatively coupled. The network has egress ports to which a plurality of servers is connected. The network has an SDN controller which generates statistical information concerning the network. Data traffic is steered through the SDN by the adaptive load balancer using a passive port method, a passive path, method, an active path method and an active path with quality of service (QoS) overlay method.