---
title: "Introduction to Pangolin"
---

Pangolin is an open-source and identity-aware tunneled reverse proxy server. Pangolin's distributed architecture with nodes provide highly available ingress to ensure applications always remain accessible.

<Frame caption="Screenshot of resources page from the Pangolin Dashboard.">
  <img src="/images/fossorial-dashboard.png" alt="Pangolin Dashboard"/>
</Frame>

Pangolin establishes secure connections from edge networks to nodes, bypassing the need for public inbound ports and complex firewall configurations. Pangolin is incredibly useful for exposing local services, IoT devices, or internal applications to the internet without direct exposure, enhancing security by reducing attack surface and simplifying network management. Additionally, Pangolin acts as an identity-aware proxy by authenticating every request against admin-defined access controls and rules.

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="How It Works" icon="map" href="/about/how-pangolin-works">
    Learn how the Pangolin system works from the server to the edge network.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Self-hosted Nodes" icon="circle-nodes" href="/manage/nodes">
    Learn about how Pangolin provides highly available ingress to your backend.
  </Card>
</Columns>

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Pangolin Cloud" icon="cloud" href="https://pangolin.fossorial.io/auth/signup">
    Use Cloud for a highly available and access-controllerd ingress service with nodes all over the world.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Quick Install Guide" icon="server" href="/self-host/quick-install-managed">
    Learn the fastest way to install a managed self-hosted Pangolin node.
  </Card>
</Columns>

## What is a fossorial animal?

The Pangolin system is made up of many components, all with unique animal names. These animals are called fossorial animals.

A fossorial animal is one adapted to digging which lives primarily but not solely, underground. Some examples are badgers, naked mole-rats, clams, meerkats, newts, olms, and yes - of course - pangolins. 
