A reverse proxy is a service (server) that:
- Appears to be a web server to clients (ie end users)
- Appears like a web client (browser) to a web server.
An example of a reverse proxy would be something like Cloudflare or CloudFront.
They can serve a range of purposes including -
- Adding https to a site which cant handle it natively (or where https is very compute intensive)
- Providing reliability/scalability by divying up requests to multiple servers
- Adding a layer of security by hiding the actual site location.
- Unifying different sites under a single domain.
(Another way to look at is litereally - it acts like a proxy, but in reverse. Instead of acting on the web clients behalf it acts on the web servers behalf)
