What is the primary function of a reverse proxy?

The primary function of a reverse proxy is to act as an intermediary between clients and servers, managing and directing client requests to the appropriate backend servers. One of its key roles is to enhance security by hiding the identities and internal structure of the servers it is protecting. By using a reverse proxy, user data is abstracted and not directly exposed to the backend servers, which helps to mitigate the risk of potential threats and attacks targeting sensitive data.

This capability is particularly important in web applications where safeguarding user information is crucial. By providing this layer, a reverse proxy can also help balance loads among different servers, cache content for faster retrieval, and provide an additional level of authentication and encryption.

The other options, while they may have some relevance to network operations, do not capture the primary essence of what a reverse proxy does. For example, while a reverse proxy can assist in speeding up connections through caching, or potentially restrict access, the main focus remains on protecting and managing data communications between users and their servers.