Foward Proxy / Reverse Proxy / SSL TLS Termination

Short summary

Forward proxies hide client IPs and enable content filtering; reverse proxies distribute traffic across backend servers and handle TLS termination. TLS termination at the reverse proxy reduces backend CPU overhead and centralizes certificate management across distributed systems.

• •Forward proxies mask client identity for privacy and enable caching; reverse proxies route requests to multiple backend servers
• •TLS termination at reverse proxy (e.g., Nginx) decrypts HTTPS before forwarding to backend over HTTP
• •TLS termination cuts CPU overhead by 1000x (reverse proxy handles N handshakes instead of each backend handling them) and simplifies certificate renewal

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