To which instance does the Dispatcher forward an un-cached request in most Adobe Experience Manager architectures?

In most Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) architectures, when the Dispatcher encounters an un-cached request, it typically forwards that request to the publisher instance. This occurs because the publisher instance is responsible for serving content to the public, while the author instance is designed for content creation and management.

The workflow within AEM generally involves the author instance being used for the content management process, where authors create and edit content, and the publisher instance handles the delivery of this content to users. Since the Dispatcher acts as a caching mechanism to enhance performance and reduce load, un-cached requests need to be forwarded to a place where the actual published content resides, which is the publisher instance.

Therefore, when a request is not found in the cache, the correct action is to send that request to the publisher instance to retrieve the needed content. This ensures that users receive the most up-to-date information available, reflecting the latest published state from the AEM system.