A method of identifying an action of a policy in association with communications between a client and one or more servers includes determining, by an intermediary, a policy action based on using a callout based policy. In one aspect, an intermediary receives communications between a client and one or more servers. The intermediary identifies a policy for the communications, the policy specifying a request and a server to communicate the request. Responsive to the policy, the intermediary transmits the request to the server. Based on the server response to the request, the intermediary determines an action of the policy. In another aspect, a system for the present method includes a an intermediary and a policy engine for identifying a policy to specify a request and a destination server. Responsive to a server response to the request, the intermediary determines an action of the policy.