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Pros and Cons of proxy servers?
Posted on 2009-07-05
I don't have a problem to solve but I'm interested in what the Experts have to say about the pro's and con's of proxy servers. Specifically putting a proxy server that does caching in front of a web server. On the pro side, as I understand it the proxy caches the web server responses, thus relieving some of the load on the web server. It can also have a security benefit because all requests are filtered through the proxy, and only the proxy is actually talking to the web server.
On the con side, you have the added expense of hardware and software, I work in a Windows shop. Plus the proxy can become a bottleneck, or need repair of replaced.
I have a friend who works in a mixed enviroment, Linux and Windows, and who works on the Linux side of the fence. He always sets up a Squid proxy in front of his Apache web servers.
The gains in performance are impressive, along with the decrease in the load on the web server.
I've talked with others who say that proxies are a pain and not worth the aggravation. What are the views of some of you Experts out there who have experience with setting up proxie caching servers in front of web servers. I work with IIS, but I'm no expert. Windows 2003 Server and IIS v6.
Thanks for taking the time to reply and helping out those of us who are not experts.