---
title: Getting Started
slug: ps/help/en_us/vtm/cloudgs/getting-started
docTags: 
createdAt: 2026-08-02T08:48:57.736Z
---

This chapter contains information about getting started using the Traffic Manager.

## Network Architecture

The Traffic Manager sits between the Internet and your back-end servers, acting as a reverse proxy. It can be used in conjunction with a standalone firewall if desired. Traffic received from the Internet is passed on to the most appropriate back-end server to respond to the request.

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You can install two or more Traffic Managers in a clustered configuration to provide full fault-tolerance for individual software failures. A typical configuration contains at least two Traffic Managers, and at least two servers hosting the load-balanced application.

:::hint{type="info"}
For Amazon EC2 configurations, these clusters cannot directly span EC2-Classic regions or span beyond the network boundary of a VPC.
:::