PaulMcMahonAccepted solution
Level 8
October 16, 2015
For HTTP to HTTPS a reverse proxy really isn't an option - you have no choice but to do s 301 redirect. You need the browser to make the HTTPS connection - with a reverse proxy the browser would still think it was on a unencrypted page - all you'd be doing is establishing ad SSL connection between you reverse proxy and your web server (which are probably the same boxes).
In case of a normal redirect from old URL to a new one I'd tend to agree that a reverse proxy is overkill. You lose some page rack which you gain back sooner or later, and save yourself endless operational headaches that would come with maintaining the reverse proxy mappings.