| Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 SDK |
ISA Server implements a cache of frequently-requested objects to improve network performance. You can configure the cache to ensure that it contains the data that is most frequently used by the organization or accessed by your Internet clients.
ISA Server can be used to allow communication between your Internal network and the Internet. Communication may be initiated by internal clients accessing servers on the Internet—in this case, ISA Server implements forward caching. Communication may be initiated by external clients accessing internal, published servers—for this case, ISA Server features reverse caching. Both scenarios can benefit from the ability of ISA Server to cache information, making it more quickly available to users.
ISA Server caching features include:
For more information about the ISA Server cache, see About the ISA Server Cache.
ISA Server can be deployed as a forward caching server that provides internal clients with access to the Internet. ISA Server maintains a centralized cache of frequently requested Internet objects that can be accessed by any client Web browser. Objects served from the disk cache require significantly less processing than objects served from the Internet. This improves client browser performance, decreases user response time, and reduces bandwidth consumption on your Internet connection.
ISA Server can be deployed in front of an organization's Web server that is hosting a commercial Web business or providing access to business partners. With incoming Web requests, ISA Server can impersonate the Web server to the outside world, fulfilling client requests for Web content from its cache. ISA Server forwards requests to the Web server only when the requests cannot be served from its cache.