Reverse Proxy: whatis

Proxy

1. Also called forward proxy
2. Masks client side IP
3. All internal requests appear to originate from the proxy server
4. Helps enforce network policies on traffic allowed to leave the organisational network

• it can regulate traffic according to preset policies, convert and mask client IP addresses, enforce security protocols, and block unknown traffic

Reverse Proxy

1. Masks the server side network details
2. All responses appear to come from the reverse proxy server
3. Internal network organisation on server side is masked

• a server that accepts a request from a client, forwards the request to another one of many other servers, and returns the results from the server that actually processed the request to the client as if the proxy server had processed the request itself. The client only communicates directly with the reverse proxy server and it does not know that some other server actually processed its request.

• effectively serves as a gateway between clients, users, and application servers. It handles all the access policy management and traffic routing, and it protects the identity of the server that actually processes the request

References

https://www.strongdm.com/blog/difference-between-proxy-and-reverse-proxy