I'm working with a web app that uses two machines, a BSD server and a Windows 2000 server. When someone goes to our website, they are connected to the BSD server which, using Apache's proxy module, relays the requests & responses between them and the web server on the Windows server. The idea (designed and deployed about 9 years ago) was that it was more secure to have the BSD server as what outside people connected to than the Windows server running the web app. The BSD server is a bare bones install with all unnecessary services & applications removed.

These servers are about to be replaced and the big question is, is a cut-down, barebones server necessary for security in this setup. From my research online I don’t see anyone else running a setup like this (I don't see anyone questioning it at least.) If they have a server between the user and the web app server(s), it is caching, compressing, and/or load balancing. Is there anything I’m overlooking by letting people connect directly from the internet ** to a Windows 2008 R2 server that’s running the web application?

** there’s a good hardware firewall between the internet with only minimal ports open

Thank you.