Caching, Compression and Delivery
How does a reverse proxy like Varnish work?
Answer
A reverse proxy sits between the web server and visitors and stores complete HTML pages in memory. When a visitor requests a cached page, the reverse proxy delivers it directly from memory without the web server or database being contacted at all. This reduces TTFB to a few milliseconds, even for complex dynamic pages. Varnish is particularly effective for shop systems with many category and product pages that change infrequently.
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