We have all heard the term “proxy”. It might sound like it’s some kind of portal to a new dimension from the Matrix movies, but it turns out it’s very real...and very useful!

In a nutshell, a proxy is an intermediary application which sits between two (or more) services and processes/modifies the requests and responses in both directions. This sounds complicated, I know, but let’s try with a simpler analogy:

Imagine you meet someone from Spain, but you don’t speak Spanish. What do you do? Well, you remember that your friend Santiago knows both Spanish and English and can translate for you.

The process goes like this:

1. You tell something to Santiago in English
2. Santiago translates it to Spanish in his head and says it in Spanish to your new friend
3. Your new friend replies back to Santiago in Spanish
4. Santiago then translates it in his head and tells you …