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What is a Reverse Proxy?
A reverse proxy is a server that sits between client devices and web servers. It acts as an intermediary, receiving requests from clients and forwarding them to the appropriate web servers. Unlike a traditional forward proxy, which forwards requests from clients to the internet, a reverse proxy handles requests on behalf of the servers.
How Does a Reverse Proxy Work?
When a client sends a request to access a website, it is first intercepted by the reverse proxy. The reverse proxy then evaluates the request and determines which web server should handle it. This decision is typically based on various factors like server availability, load balancing, or specific routing rules.
Once the reverse proxy selects the appropriate server, it forwards the request to that server on behalf of the client. The server processes the request and sends the response back to the reverse proxy. Finally, the reverse proxy forwards the response back to the client, completing the request-response cycle.
Benefits of Using a Reverse Proxy
The use of a reverse proxy offers several benefits for websites and web applications:
1. Improved Performance: A reverse proxy can cache static web content, such as images or CSS files, reducing the load on backend servers and improving response times for clients.
2. Load Balancing: Reverse proxies can distribute client requests across multiple servers, ensuring that the workload is evenly spread and preventing any single server from becoming overwhelmed.
3. SSL Termination: Reverse proxies can handle SSL termination, decrypting incoming HTTPS requests, and forwarding them to backend servers over unencrypted HTTP connections. This offloads the SSL processing from the servers and improves performance.
4. Security Enhancement: Reverse proxies can act as a protective barrier between the internet and web servers by filtering and blocking malicious traffic, mitigating DDoS attacks, or implementing access controls.
5. Simplified Architecture: By serving as a single entry point for client requests, a reverse proxy can help simplify and streamline the infrastructure, making it easier to manage and scale the backend servers.
Conclusion
In summary, a reverse proxy is a server that acts as an intermediary between client devices and web servers. It receives client requests, selects the appropriate backend server, and forwards the requests on behalf of the clients. By providing caching, load balancing, security, and other features, a reverse proxy enhances performance, scalability, and security for websites and web applications.
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