A company has 10 EC2 web servers in a production VPC and 10 web servers in an on-prem data center. They have a 10 Gbps Direct Connect between the data center and the production VPC. The data center uses 10.100.0.0/20. The company needs a load-balancing solution that accepts HTTPS from thousands of internet users and distributes requests across both cloud and on-prem servers. Sessions must stick to the same web server for their duration regardless of server location. Which solution satisfies these requirements?

The correct solution uses an Application Load Balancer (ALB) because it supports HTTPS termination and application-based sticky sessions, which are required for thousands of internet users and session persistence. ALBs operate at Layer 7, allowing for advanced routing based on HTTP/HTTPS headers. Using IP as the target type for both EC2 instances and on-premises servers is essential for registering targets across the Direct Connect connection, as on-premises servers are not AWS instances. Application-based sticky sessions ensure users remain connected to the same server, regardless of its location. Incorrect options: NLB does not support HTTPS termination or application-based sticky sessions, which are explicit requirements. Specifying 'instance' as the target type for on-premises servers is not possible, as they are not EC2 instances.