The document provides an overview of using Varnish to accelerate web applications. Some key points:
- Varnish works by caching responses from backend servers in memory for future requests, reducing load on backends. It respects HTTP caching best practices like expiration, conditional requests, and cache variations.
- Configuration is done through Varnish Configuration Language (VCL) scripts which control caching behavior. Common tasks covered include setting cache rules, purging content, and normalizing requests.
- Techniques discussed include caching only safe requests, stripping cookies, blacklisting/whitelisting URLs, and using Edge Side Includes (ESI) to break pages into cacheable components. Guidelines are provided for optimizing caching of dynamic content.