Sun Performance and Tuning: Java™ and the Internet, Second Edition

Proxy Web Caching Servers

A caching web server acts as an invisible intermediary between a client browser and the servers that provide content. It cuts down on overall network traffic and provides administrative control over web traffic routing. Performance requirements are quite different from those for a regular web server. After discussing the issues, I’ll look at several extra metrics that need to be collected and analyzed.

There are two different classes of caching proxy web server. They are used in small- to medium-sized installations to implement companywide intranets. They are also used in very large installations to provide country-level caching and filtering on the Internet. In both cases, the primary goal is to reduce wide-area web ...