Proxies serve the purpose of acting as intermediaries between the internet and users’ devices. They route online traffic through their servers and allow internet users to visit websites anonymously, safely, and privately.
Proxy servers are popular tools for bypassing geo-restrictions, unlocking blocked content, hiding IPs, and performing various data harvesting tasks such as web scraping.
Let’s delve deeper into what datacenter proxies are and how they work.
Defining a datacenter proxy server
A datacenter proxy is a gateway or an intermediary between the web and your internet-enabled device. It creates a safe internet connection for web browsing and website accessing.
Upon accessing the web, a proxy server routes your online traffic through its servers, replacing your IP with a new one, thus hiding your identity and location from prying eyes.
Datacenter proxies have a leased physical data center. Proxy service providers rely on that center to lease IPs according to users’ needs. A leased datacenter IP provides a user with increased anonymity online and allows them to choose what they want to do with their appearance online.
Datacenter proxies differ from mobile and residential proxies in their physical presence. All proxy types obfuscate or replace your IP with another one. However, instead of cloud or physical IPs, datacenter proxies use unique IPs from a data center with numerous servers worldwide. This allows them to lower latencies and operate more quickly.
How datacenter proxy server works
Datacenter proxy servers work just like any other proxy service. An internet user buys a proxy service and installs the gateway tool on their internet-enabled device. The proxy server grants them internet access and connects their device to its web servers in the data center.
When a user sends a request to access some content on the web, a datacenter proxy assigns an available IP address from one of its servers. A new IP protects users’ identity and location and allows them to navigate the web safely.
Proxy servers protect you no matter what device you use. Some providers offer proxy services for free. However, free services often lack decent security and advanced features.
We recommend premium proxy solutions that provide enhanced encryption, multiple IPs, and global server coverage.
The ins and outs of datacenter proxies
Datacenter proxies have a variety of strengths and weaknesses. Let’s quickly explore them.
Cost-efficiency
Datacenter proxies are affordable. For example, you can buy a dedicated datacenter proxy for just one buck and use it for a month.
IPv6 and shared datacenter proxies are even cheaper and offer unlimited bandwidth and top security. However, top proxy service providers restrict the number of devices users can use.
Fast connection
Speed is one of the most crucial advantages of using datacenter proxies. They excel when it comes to internet speeds.
Since they use their high-performance servers, datacenter proxies can offer speeds of up to 1 Gbps. People working with web applications understand the importance of ultra-fast internet connections for exchanging data online.
Readily available
Datacenter proxies don’t require complex infrastructures to function as there’s no ISP involved. This makes them readily accessible.
What are the main uses for data center proxies?
Datacenter proxies have many use cases, such as:
- Market research – these proxies enable web scraping, which is crucial to successful data harvesting. Businesses use web scraping techniques to fuel decision-making, conduct market and competition research, compare prices, identify emerging trends, and more.
- Bypassing geo-restrictions – datacenter proxies use their unique IP addresses and different server locations to help users unlock blocked content across restricted regions.
- Marketing quality assurance – since datacenter proxies can operate in any location, companies use them to ensure that their promotions give the desired results.
- IP ban prevention – if you practice web scraping or manage multiple social media accounts, using a single IP will lead you to an IP ban. Datacenter proxies can help you to avoid this issue and access as many websites as you need.
Datacenter vs. residential proxies
Here’s a quick datacenter vs. residential proxies comparison.
Higher speed
Datacenter proxies are much faster than their residential counterparts. That’s why businesses use them to frequently obfuscate their IP addresses without sacrificing connection speed.
Datacenter proxies provide higher speeds due to routing online traffic through their servers. These providers usually have access to business-grade internet speed, which makes this proxy type ideal for large-scale automated scraping operations.
Costs more
Residential proxies cost more than datacenter proxy services. In addition, datacenter proxies are more available and easier to build and use. They require fewer infrastructure resources and allow users to create them on top of existing servers.
Less anonymity
While datacenter proxies can help you to secure some degree of online anonymity, residential proxy services offer top-level anonymity due to having a bigger pool of IP addresses. Because of this, residential proxies are a better option for bypassing geo-restrictions and covering more locations worldwide.
Residential proxies are preferred options for regular and corporate internet users due to enabling access to any content anywhere. If you can’t access some web content in your area, use a different IP to change your location beyond the restricted region.
Conclusion
Datacenter proxies are fast, reliable, affordable, and easy to secure. The best proxy service providers have thousands of data center servers worldwide, allowing users to access any content anywhere.
Currently, you can access countless datacenter proxy providers with various pricing models and feature ranges based on the number of proxies or data bandwidth required.
From the many proxy types, datacenter proxies are the cheapest, most available solutions for decent anonymity online, unlocking geo-blocked content, web scraping, managing multiple social media accounts, and more.