What are datacenter proxies?

A datacenter proxy is a proxy service that offers quick internet access and a better user experience. As they’re not affiliated with an ISP, they will hide your real IP address, which means the website won’t be able to identify the user’s real IP address, enabling the user to access the website anonymously. That’s beneficial in a number of scenarios, like accessing all the information on a website hosted in a country whose servers may hide certain information, getting around a server block, or when you need high bandwidth without network lag.

Datacenter proxies are typically obtained through cloud service providers and hosting companies, such as AWS, Google Cloud or OVH. By regulating and protecting the use of scalable and elastic proxies, datacenter proxies can also protect businesses.

Why Do You Need Datacenter Proxies?

Let’s take a closer look at more specific use cases for datacenter proxies.

Web Scraping and Data Collection

When a user wants to access information from a website without revealing their IP address, a datacenter proxy can mask their web scraping machine's IP address. The target site has no idea what the IP address of your initial local scraping machine is because it sees the request coming in from the proxy machine's IP address.

If a user wants to access a website from another country without disclosing their IP address, the datacenter proxy can circumvent website restrictions. Users can also avoid rate constraints on their target website.

Obfuscating Identity

Identity obfuscation employs a variety of privacy-protecting tools, such as VPN and Tor. Although the actual method of obfuscation varies from tool to tool, the goal is always the same: to hide the use of privacy protection software and make it appear as though none is being used.

Datacenter proxies are used to get around VPN blocking software—particularly crucial for people who live in countries where using a VPN is prohibited. It's also a simple solution if you have a problem with an internal network that doesn't support VPN.

Regrettably, not everyone has access to whatever website they desire. China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and Israel, for example, impose limitations on residents' ability to access certain websites. Users are often unable to access websites via VPN or advanced VPN services, leaving only datacenter proxies as a method to bypass VPN bans.

Circumventing Geo-location and IP-based Restrictions

A company may have opted to block a country or region, say, to avoid large network traffic on their website by applying geo-location restrictions. For example, an e-commerce website might only want to enable users from the Middle East to sell and purchase things on the site while restricting customers from other regions. Geo-location restrictions would help ensure that the site performs faster for the desired users. A datacenter proxy could enable a user outside those restrictions to access the site.

IP-based restriction only works with web-based programs that allow users to log in using their credentials. For example, an admin can limit access to a group of IP addresses so that users can only log in from those specific IP addresses. If the admin wants users to be able to access the CRM solely from the workplace and not from anywhere else, this functionality will be very useful.

IP-based limitations apply to all users. It’s not possible to provide some users access while refusing access to others. Once the IP address restriction is activated, only users with specific IP addresses will be allowed to log in.

A Deeper Look at Datacenter Proxies

In this digital era, datacenter proxies are the proxies you see everywhere. When they hide your IP address, they have nothing to do with your internet connection or internet service provider. In all circumstances, they’re completely self-contained. When you wish to protect your IP address while accessing restricted website material, this makes it simple.

Datacenter proxies share a few common characteristics:

• They are cheap.
• They enable fast internet connection speed (so they are great for high-scale way scraping)
• They’re suitable for most user needs.
• They enable access to content on restricted websites.
• They enable access to geo-location restricted content.

How Do Datacenter Proxies Work?

A datacenter proxy works as an intermediate, sending your requests to relevant websites and retrieving the necessary content. In other cases, the proxy may already have the information you require in its cached database, eliminating the need for communication with the website at all. As a result, the requested pages load significantly more quickly.

How Are Datacenter Proxies Different From Residential Proxies?

Residential proxies are IP addresses that are plugged directly into a home network with a conventional internet service provider (ISP), usually DSL or cable. Datacenter proxies are IP addresses that originate from a datacenter.

You can disguise your true IP behind another IP that is traced to a home address that isn't your own. A datacenter proxy IP address is instead tracked back to the company or datacenter that owns it.

What Are the Different Types of Datacenter Proxies?

The methodology used to classify datacenter proxies is the most important factor.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Proxies

The HTTP protocol is used for the majority of internet browsing. Entering or clicking on a URL, which is submitted to the server hosting the site, is a common part of the browsing experience. After receiving a user request, the server should hopefully respond with information from the website.

This setup is known as a client-server model, in which you send a request to a server and the server responds. When using an HTTP proxy, the proxy server acts as a middleman between your browser and the server.

Secure Socket (SOCKS) Proxies

Here, a proxy service sends network packets between the server and user browser. Although HTTP proxies are used to get site information, SOCKS proxies are handy for other applications. They are known to be a lesser level of proxy when compared to HTTP proxies. SOCKS is a network protocol that allows users to communicate with servers through a firewall. It routes network traffic to the appropriate server and can handle any form of traffic generated by any protocol or program.

Considerations for Choosing a Datacenter Proxy

There are many reasons to use datacenter proxies, and each organization will have its own purposes for them. If a company wants something more complicated for their business, like web scraping or sending sensitive data and want to protect the information from getting leaked, a company may maintain absolute confidentiality and safeguard their information from being disclosed with the use of a proxy server.

Speed

To keep ahead of the competition, every company must work quickly and exceed client expectations. Proxy servers boost the speed and security of internet business. It can manage extraordinarily high bandwidth of up to 1 GB per second. Companies are simply more successful when their business is safe and fast, marketing produces results, and growth happens faster.

Rather than using free proxies, make sure you acquire them from reputable providers who can give support and security. To find a reputable provider, look for the following features:

• 99.99 percent uptime
• Higher bandwidth
• Premium datacenter proxies that support HTTPS and SOCKS5
• Anonymity
• Advanced proxy rotation (ie, a proxy server that automatically uses a different datacenter proxy with each request)
• 24/7 customer support

Bright Data, Blazing SEO and obviously ScrapingBee are some of the best datacenter proxy providers on the market right now, depending on your budget and what you need.

Stability

Datacenter proxies have multiple IP addresses, making them reliable and unrestricted in terms of access. A good datacenter proxy will have a high uptime of around 99 percent, and the possibilities of bandwidth overflow are slim.

Keep in mind that datacenter IPs can still be blocked or otherwise restricted by websites in order to limit bots. There's a chance you'll be blacklisted or blocked. The target server is more likely to suspect something because there will be other users connected to the same proxy as you.

The risk is still modest, though, and there is a way to tackle this problem: providing numerous subnets can enable you to continue working while switching between IP groups.

💡 Need free proxies? Discover how to scrape fresh free public proxies with our AI-powered Web Scraping API .

Conclusion

The benefits of employing datacenter proxies are numerous, and they’re highly worth examining. Hopefully, you should now have a basic grasp of different proxies and how they work.

Remember that rather than using free ones, you should choose your proxy from reputable providers who can offer support and security. So, choose the finest proxy for your needs and stay safe while surfing the web!