SaaS, short for Software-as-a-Service, is a popular business model today, giving it flexibility and convenience. However, even these companies face challenges like security concerns, the necessity for accurate data to make marketing decisions, competition, and the need to meet growing users’ demands. Proxy is an answer to this, as it is used for numerous purposes, and many other tools are useless without proxies. In this article, we dive deeper into how proxies benefit SaaS companies.

Pains of SaaS companies  

SaaS companies host their services on cloud servers and deliver them to customers over the Internet. Users don’t have to install and manage software or buy hardware to use SaaS apps; they can access services from anywhere without worrying about maintaining or upgrading software, as companies take care of things. The most popular examples of SaaS are Google Workspace, Netflix, Zoom, Shopify, and others.

Although SaaS products are convenient to use, and there is a widespread belief that they face fewer challenges, SaaS companies still have their share of headaches besides developing and delivering high-quality services and keeping up-to-date with technology trends. The thing is that such a solution model differs from other businesses. SaaS companies make huge investments to acquire customers, but the return on those investments isn’t immediate; it comes over a long period of time. As a result, SaaS companies need to understand users’ behavior, figure out why users drop off, and find ways to retain them. Of course, acquiring new customers is also important; however, retaining existing users is cheaper and more effective in the long run.

What is a proxy?

A proxy is an intermediary server that receives clients’ requests and relays them to the target server. The target server communicates only with a proxy, so the client’s IP and other data stay hidden—only the proxy’s IP is visible to websites you visit. Depending on how you adjust a proxy server, it can also filter content, cache data, and more.

However, how is all of it useful for SaaS companies?

Proxies for data analysis

Retaining customers is impossible without analyzing customer journeys, the latest trends, competitors, and anything else that may give hints about how to offer users the utmost service so they stay with a company longer.

To analyze data, you have to retrieve it first. There are numerous bots and scrapers—special programs—that can wander the Net and automatically collect useful info such as customer reviews from forums, competitors’ offers and prices, ratings, and so on so you can study it. However, even with those tools, scraping data is easier said than done.

Bots make requests way faster than humans, immediately triggering anti-bot systems. They detect numerous requests from the same IP and block your address altogether, so you can’t get data from this source anymore. It’s called an IP ban, which you can avoid by implementing rotating proxies. When you do so, the IP address you use changes every particular time interval that you can set yourself, and requests come as if from different users. This way, you prevent anti-bot systems from blocking you because it will be much 

harder to figure out that scraping is happening.

Another common problem you face is geo-based restrictions. Many web sources have restrictions regarding users from what countries can and cannot visit them. A website may have numerous localized versions, and after detecting your location, it will show you the relevant one, which is terrible when you need to analyze foreign markets and collect their local data. As your IP gives away your location, using proxies of the necessary location will solve those problems and provide you access to whatever sources you want.

Besides, proxies will serve as an additional layer of security. Many websites are known for hosting viruses or malware; sometimes, malicious code starts executing the moment you open a page, causing a stored cross-site scripting attack (XSS). You can block access to such sources with the help of proxies. You can block potentially harmful content, too, based on strings of text, code, or objects within images. The fact that your real IP stays hidden will also benefit your security because a DDoS attack is impossible to conduct without knowing the target server’s address. Also, proxies can encrypt traffic, which is especially important if you have to enter credentials or other sensitive data. Here, you can read about how proxies protect you.

Proxies for testing and debugging

To win their loyalty, you must provide top-notch service to your customers. That’s why you must ensure your software works smoothly, updates run seamlessly and on time, and your service is safe to use. Proxies can help you with those testing and debugging tasks.

For example, you can imitate a high load and check how the system responds to it, whether it is ready to handle heavy traffic, and whether there are any security vulnerabilities that show themselves only under load.

Security testing also calls for proxies. You can imitate sudden traffic spikes or a DDoS attack to see if your safety measures are adequate or if you need to improve them.

Proxies also help you monitor traffic. This is worth doing as it can identify possible bottlenecks, errors, latency, incorrect performance of API endpoints, and more. Traffic monitoring also helps you check whether new features function correctly. This technique provides real-time insights into how your software works and helps you fix issues before you disappoint your customers.

Geo-location testing is also impossible without proxies. Suppose you offer different services or permissions for different locations (for example, Netflix’s libraries differ from region to region). In that case, you need to check whether everything works correctly. Proxies will help you imitate traffic from a necessary region so you can ensure your software performs as intended.

Proxies for internal use

A lot of things stay behind the scenes while developing and deploying software. These are also necessary for the company’s smooth internal routine and more effective work. For example, proxies can facilitate communication between various microservices so endpoints stay hidden. This may be beneficial if you deal with partner microservices and care about security. Proxies can also be handy if you rely on third-party APIs. If you use proxies to forward API calls, it’s easier to control API usage.

Proxies could also help you with caching. If your internal services or apps use data from external sources, you may cache frequently used pages to avoid latency and save bandwidth.

If you want to transit from IPv4 to IPv6 protocol and are wondering how to avoid possible issues, a proxy is the answer. Proxy servers can facilitate communication between hardware that relies on different protocols and can’t interact directly without a middleman, making the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 smoother and less problematic.

How to choose the most effective proxies?

You should go with a reliable provider to get all the advantages of using proxies. Here are the key characteristics you have to pay attention to:

• legality

Choose a provider that offers ethically sourced proxies not associated with illicit activities. Not only will such proxies help you with web scraping and other tasks, but they also won’t cause damage to your reputation. Nothing hinders your image as much as being associated with spreading malware or other illegal stuff. For example, DataImpulse obtains its pool via a special app, and we pay our partners for their traffic. We also block suspicious sources and ports and prohibit using our proxies for any forbidden activities to protect you.

• number of proxies

That’s simple: the bigger pool a provider has, the more different IPs you can use while web scraping. It is pretty useful, as your chances of getting detected by anti-bot systems and receiving a ban are drastically lower. In this regard, DataImpulse offers you 10 million unique addresses to freely harvest any data you need.

• human support

Providing you with the finest proxies is good, but not enough. Look for an all-inclusive service where you can receive help if you need it. Of course, today, it is hard to find a company without a support team. However, businesses often implement AI-powered bots, which can be of no help sometimes. Opt for a provider with human agents who can really cater to your needs. You trust DataImpulse with it, as we offer 24/7 human support, even on weekends. Our managers usually answer in several minutes.

To wrap up

Being in a SaaS business opens many possibilities for growth; however, challenges follow. To keep your customers satisfied and loyal, you should use all the tools possible, and proxy is one of them. They aid you in harvesting marketing data necessary for making informed decisions, guard your safety, help you test your software, and ensure your work routine stays smooth. Just make sure to choose a trustworthy provider. We at DataImpulse, a SaaS company, understand your needs and do our best to offer a high-quality service that helps solve your problems. You can have ten million legally-sourced proxies with human support while paying as much as $1 per 1GB. You also don’t have to worry about traffic expiring as we operate on a pay-as-you-go pricing model. Write to us at [email protected] or click the “Try now” button to get your performance and security to a new level.