Corporate Proxy Servers

As a general definition, corporate proxy servers (and school proxies too) are applications that work as a gateway to transmit data between inner (trusted) network and outer network that is possibly not safe. There are some benefits for companies from using proxy servers:

Less expences on internet connection

Instead of using individual internet connection for every PC in the network, the company share internet connection through the proxy servers. Proxy servers help to reduce cost due to the fact that there can be hundreds even thousands of PC’s in the network. IP addresses are allocated dynamically, according to needs. Company’s proxies distribute local IP addresses between the PC’s.

Data caching

Proxy servers can also cache some of the most commonly accessed data. Data caching is used to reduce the need to access data from remote hosts This save the bandwidth and reduce time to access websites. Data caching is being used by the most of internet providers too.

Proxy servers act as firewalls

Due to their design, proxy servers can also act like firewalls and block any unwanted access to the company’s inner network. Proxy server can be configured to allow only certain information to reach the company’s network and other access restrictions. From that point network administrators can manage internet access for company’s employee. They can block access to certain websites e.g. Myspace, Facebook, etc. These restrictions are defined by company’s internet access policy