A reverse proxy sits in front of servers — it hides server identity from clients and handles TLS, load balancing, and caching.
Explanation
Reverse proxies serve the server side of the connection. A website operator puts Nginx, Cloudflare, or HAProxy in front of their origin servers. Clients connect to the reverse proxy, thinking they are talking to the origin; the reverse proxy forwards the request to whichever backend server is best positioned to handle it. Reverse proxies are the standard architecture for terminating TLS at one place, load-balancing across multiple app servers, caching static assets, and hiding origin IPs from public traffic. Every serious website in 2026 has at least one reverse proxy layer. The name "reverse" refers to direction — from server toward client — opposite of forward proxies. Same proxy pattern, different side of the conversation.
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