Reverse Proxy
A server that sits in front of your web server and handles requests on its behalf.
A reverse proxy is a server that intercepts requests before they reach your origin server. It can cache content, filter malicious traffic, balance load across multiple servers, terminate SSL, and compress responses. Cloudflare is a reverse proxy: visitors connect to Cloudflare's network, and Cloudflare forwards legitimate requests to your origin. Nginx and HAProxy are common self-hosted reverse proxies. The "reverse" distinguishes it from a forward proxy, which sits in front of clients rather than servers.