Why Do Companies Use Proxies?
/For any company to grow and expand, it needs to find a way to make the best business decisions quickly, regularly, and with accurate real-time data. This means it needs to constantly have access to sufficient and accurate user data for making informed decisions.
This is everything a proxy stands for – from unhindered access to user data from any server to ease of data extraction and analysis. Brands can perform many business activities with proxies while still protecting themselves and their data in the same vein. Today, we will consider some of the benefits of using a proxy and why every e-commerce company needs to start using them.
What is a proxy?
A proxy can be defined as a communication link or gateway between an internet user and a target website. They are computers that provide a quick, safe, and anonymous way for users to access servers, websites, and other kinds of data sources.
Proxies generally offer improved functionalities, data privacy and security, and access to even the most restricted information but at various levels and to varying degrees. They usually stand in to accept your requests, modify them and forward them to your target destination. And then, when the data you had requested is being returned, proxies also serve to accept the responses, screen them for any suspicious content before forwarding them to you. For this reason, they were once viewed as computers for forwarding users’ requests and ensuring smooth traffic flow.
However, modern proxies now do more than just receiving and forwarding. They can also act as firewalls and web content filters, providing an internet user with one of the most secure options for accessing the internet. Proxies also help boost connection speed and improve server performance by employing caching mechanisms. Lastly, they can grant unhindered access to geo-restricted content from any part of the world.
How does proxy work?
A simplified description of how a proxy works is given below:
All internet-enabled devices have internet protocol (IP) addresses assigned by an internet service provider (ISP)
These addresses are what the web uses to identify connected devices and treats, then returns their requests accordingly
When you make a request to the internet using a proxy, your request is first intercepted by the proxy, read, and interpreted (sometimes and by some proxies) before it is forwarded to the target website using the proxy’s IP address, proxies, and location
Once the request has been sent out and data extracted, the returning information is again routed via the proxy
The proxy scrutinizes the returning data to detect any malicious inclusions
Once it is satisfied that the response is safe, it is forwarded to you and displayed as a readable webpage
Main benefits of using a proxy
Companies that use proxies usually enjoy any or all of the following benefits:
Enhanced data security and privacy
Proxies provide the needed security by adding an extra layer of protection to both your requests and response. Proxies also facilitate online privacy by concealing your information thereby allowing you to browse the internet anonymously.
Increased speed and compressed bandwidth
Proxies are well known for significantly increasing the speed at which you can browse the internet by doing all or some of the following; compressing traffic, performing caching, and removing ads from designated websites. The overall result is faster connections and an improved browsing experience.
Bypassing content restrictions
One of the most desirable benefits of using proxies is that they can easily and effortlessly lift bans and restrictions and grant you unrivalled access to restricted content, servers, and websites. They do this by masking your IP address and changing your location. That way, websites will be unable to pin you to your true location hence allowing you access to their contents as they may see you are in a different location.
Geo-restrictions based solely on a physical location, are some of the worst types of restrictions and can negatively affect a business. Proxies can help you easily bypass them.
Improved internet load balancing
A sudden influx of traffic can cause your server to crash, but not when you use a proxy server. You can use highly reliable rotating proxies to balance internet traffic so that no single computer gets overloaded with requests, thereby preventing crashes. The proxy network does this by forwarding requests to the server with the least number of connections.
Most common cases where proxies are used
There are two very common instances in which proxies are often used; web scraping and accessing restricted content.
Proxies are widely known for removing the many challenges associated with web scraping and automating the entire process. Therefore, they make the process possible, and make it easier and more appealing for most businesses.
Also, proxies are one of the most effective tools for accessing content that has been restricted to users from a certain location (just like the previous example with a Japanese proxy). Because all devices on the internet have IPs and because these IPs can easily give off the device's location, a website can easily restrict users from accessing their content by simply initiating a geo-restriction strategy. Proxies can mask IPs and switch locations and are, inarguably, one of the best ways to get around this problem.
When looking for proxy service providers, make sure you check the offered proxy pool - the bigger the pool, the more possibilities to get the desired IP address (closer to your target). For example, one of the market leaders, Oxylabs has a 102 million IP proxy pool around the world.
Conclusion
While some companies use proxies for web scraping, others use them to access restricted servers. Regardless of what a company uses a proxy for, the benefits are numerous and usually apparent. Some of these benefits include increasing corporate data privacy and security, improving browsing speed, compressing traffic and files, and providing a way for bypassing online restrictions.
