HAProxy. High availability and a reverse proxy–it’s in the name, but what does it all mean? Before understanding how the two concepts work together in the load balancing space, we need to unpack the basics of high availability and how a reverse proxy functions.

If you host dozens of web services that reside at various subdomains, TCP ports, and paths, then migrating them to live under a single address could simplify how clients access them and make your job of managing access easier. It would mean moving from a hodgepodge of address schemes, such as: to a single address wherein services are designated by the URL’s path: The good news is that you don’t need to rearrange your entire network to make this happen.

An application programming interface (API) provides access to the features of a business application, but with the visual elements stripped away. By using APIs, devices like tablets, self-service kiosks, point-of-sale terminals, and robotic sensors can connect up to apps running on servers in a datacenter or in the cloud. Because they give access to the heart of your business applications, it should come as no surprise that there are some APIs that the general public should not have access to.

Developing a strategy for collecting application-level logs necessitates stepping back and looking at the big picture. Engineers developing the applications may only see logging at its ground level: the code that writes the event to the log—for example a function that captures Warning: An interesting event has occurred! But where does that message go from there? What path does it travel to get to its destination?