Title: Origin servers
Author: WordPress VIP Documentation
Published: July 29, 2022
Last modified: February 3, 2026

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 1. [Infrastructure](https://docs.wpvip.com/infrastructure/)
 2. Origin servers

#  Origin servers

WordPress VIP maintains several origin data centers worldwide where [VIP Platform environments](https://docs.wpvip.com/vip-platform/environments/)
are hosted. Origin servers for WordPress environments have application, database,
batch, and object cache (Memcached) containers. Origin servers for Node.js environments
have at minimum a Node.js application container and in some cases, a Valkey container.

![](https://docs.wpvip.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/InfrastructureDiagram-
1024x325.png)

An overview of the VIP Platform infrastructure

An origin server is a “source of truth” for the state of an application. It is not
intended to handle all requests that are made to a WordPress VIP site. To protect
the health and resilience of an origin server, requests to a site first pass through
an [edge cache server](https://docs.wpvip.com/vip-platform/edge-cache/).

If the edge cache already has a cached response for a request, the cached response
is returned. If the request meets specific criteria to bypass the [page cache](https://docs.wpvip.com/caching/page-cache/)(
e.g., a unique request, a request with `no-cache` headers) the request will be routed
to the origin server, and the new response will be cached at the edge for future
requests.

Insights into the duration of time it takes for an environment’s origin server to
generate a response and send it back to the cache can be reviewed in [the **Insights & Metrics** panel of the VIP Dashboard](https://docs.wpvip.com/performance/insights-metrics/).

## Outgoing requests from an origin server

Outgoing requests (e.g. requests to an API not hosted by Automattic or VIP) made
by a site hosted on the VIP Platform will originate from its origin data center.
A publicly accessible list of [IP ranges](https://docs.wpvip.com/vip-platform/ip-ranges/)
for origin data centers is available for reference.

Last updated: February 03, 2026