Websites using Varnish

✨ Facts about Varnish

1. Varnish is a web application accelerator: Varnish is an HTTP reverse proxy caching server that can significantly improve the performance of web applications. By caching commonly-accessed data, it reduces the load on the server and improves website speed, thereby providing users with a faster browsing experience.

2. Varnish is open source: Developed in 2006 by Danish engineer Poul-Henning Kamp, Varnish is an open-source software solution. This means that it can be freely modified and distributed by users, and it benefits from a large community of developers and contributors who work together to improve its functionality and features.

3. Varnish can be configured using Varnish Configuration Language (VCL): VCL is a domain-specific language designed specifically for configuring Varnish. With VCL, users can create custom caching policies, perform load balancing, and control request and response handling. This allows for a high level of flexibility and customization, making it possible to optimize Varnish for various types of web applications and environments.

4. Varnish supports edge side includes (ESI): ESI is a web technology that enables the assembly of cached page components at the edge of a content delivery network (CDN). With ESI support, Varnish can cache parts of a webpage separately and combine them during a client request. This allows for more efficient caching of dynamic content, further improving website performance.

5. Varnish has a wide range of use cases: Many high-traffic websites and content delivery networks rely on Varnish to improve their performance and reduce server load. Some notable users of Varnish include The New York Times, Vimeo, Facebook, and Wikipedia. In addition to web optimization, it can also be useful in load balancing, API acceleration, and video streaming.