Which HTTP header removal is used to offload compression to the Citrix ADC, and what is the resulting effect?

• A. The header remains, and compression is performed by the servers.
• B. The header is removed, and compression is offloaded to the Citrix ADC.
• C. The header is renamed, affecting the compression policy.
• D. The header triggers a fallback to deflate compression only.

Answer: (B)

Offloading compression to the Citrix ADC is achieved by removing the backend server’s Content-Encoding header from the response. Without that header, the origin’s payload is treated as unencoded by the ADC, which then applies its own compression policy when sending the response to the client. This centralizes and speeds up compression work at the edge, reducing CPU load on the origin servers and ensuring consistent compression behavior according to the ADC’s configuration. If the header were left in place, the origin might send an already compressed payload, which could lead to incorrect handling or double compression, defeating the offload. Renaming or other header changes don’t enable the ADC to take over compression in the same way.