Varnish as reverse proxy with nginx as web server and SSL terminator Or, if you like, the nginx-Varnish-nginx sandwich. Why? This is, admittedly, a bit unorthodox. But here’s my rationale: Since time immemorial (ie. more than a couple of years of Internet time), we at Reveal IT have been deploying Varnish in front of the web sites we build for our customers, with the dual purpose of a faster (and