Dependance (or better non-dependance) on the Origin

[Max Clark]

Hello,

With other reverse proxy caches we constantly see issues where the
proxy is dependent on the Origin - even if the requested object is in
the cache if the Origin is not available the proxy will not respond to
requests.

How does Varnish handle the connections to the Origin? Is it possible
to have Varnish serve requests if the Origin is down?

Thanks,
Max