Proxies have become hugely popular among businesses as well as private users all over the world. While most people use it to unblock Netflix and work around geographical blocks, proxies have a much wider purpose. Businesses can get an entire list of benefits from changing their location to an Indonesia proxy, for example.
Proxy servers offer a unique way of accessing the internet without anyone being able to identify your actual location. That unique feature provides all kinds of benefits, especially for businesses and companies. Stay with us, and we’ll tell you more about the role of proxies in the business world.
Proxies Defined
Online privacy is becoming a huge issue worldwide in the past few years, ever since the huge data leak scandal with Facebook. The rising concerns have led to new ways of protecting personal data while browsing the internet, and proxies are among the most popular methods by far.
The main reason for that can be found in the benefits it provides. Proxies act as a protective shield between you and the internet. Every time you want to access a website online, your device sends out a request to the website’s server. The server finds the information you requested and returns it back to your device’s IP address.
The IP address is really a virtual address, and without it, the internet couldn’t work because the server wouldn’t know where to send the requested information. But, these servers can get a lot more information from a single IP, such as the location of the connection, your browsing history, and much more.
Proxies simply switch your original IP address with another one located far away from your original location. That way, you seem like a random user from another part of the world, allowing you to conduct your online search without anyone knowing it was you. Proxies are able to keep your identity and location hidden, which, of course, is the primary goal.
Types of Proxies
There are many different types of proxies available right now. All of them offer the same type of protection, but they come with special features designed for specific uses. Here are just a few proxy types widely used to provide anonymity to their uses:
Residential proxies
Residential proxies are an excellent choice because they have huge pools of real IP addresses. Using them will make you seem like a random user from far away. For example, you can access geo-restricted content in Indonesia from the US by using an Indonesia proxy.
Datacenter proxies
Datacenter proxies are the opposite of residential proxies. Instead of using real IP addresses, datacenter proxies generate fake IP addresses that are not tied to an actual device. They are somewhat of a cloud proxy, and they are used to boost internet speeds.
Shared proxies
Shared proxies are among the cheapest options, and they work like shared servers. Multiple clients share the cost of a proxy, and they can all access it at the same time. These proxies are more complex as they have to cope with multiple requests simultaneously.
Why Are These Proxies Used
Businesses and companies use proxies not only to protect their identity and conduct web scraping projects without anyone knowing but for a few other reasons as well.
Better Corporate Security
Since proxies hide your original IP address, businesses use them to improve their overall cybersecurity and prevent hacking attacks. Proxy servers drastically reduce the chances of a security breach, and they protect all devices in the same local network.
Finish Sensitive Tasks Anonymously
Proxies are mostly used to make all web traffic anonymous. Businesses use it to monitor competitors, find helpful information that will give them an edge, and other tasks that are better done anonymously.
Control Over Employee Internet Usage
With proxies, you can always know which websites your employees visit. You will know if they visit an unsafe website that could lead to serious security breaches. Proxies give you full control over which websites can be accessed and which can’t. You can simply create a list of forbidden sites, and none of your employees will be able to open them.
Bypass Geographic Restriction
As mentioned above with an Indonesia proxy, proxies allow users to connect through servers anywhere around the world. Thus, you gain access to any content globally while being in one place. This is especially valuable for businesses who perform web scraping operations and gather publicly available data for market research purposes or review monitoring. If you are interested in large proxy pools, you can start your research from here and visit the Oxylabs website.
Things to Consider When Choosing a Proxy
There are a few things you should definitely consider when buying a proxy to make sure that you made the right choice. We won’t go into too many details, but this shortlist should be enough to point you in the right direction.
- Buy your proxies only from legitimate businesses.
- Always go with a paid proxy and never with a free one.
- The size of the IP pool is one of the most important factors.
- Make sure that the prices are not too high.
- Take a look at the dashboard and make sure that it’s easy to navigate.
- Choose the proxy according to your project needs.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that proxies offer many benefits to their users, especially for businesses. Their ability to hide your original IP address will not only increase your overall security through your company, but it can also help you monitor your competitors. With the right application, proxies can help you stay protected at all times when you go online.
