Is there any reason to setup and use proxy servers these days?

there are many reasons 1-To keep machines behind it anonymous, mainly for security 2-To speed up access to resources(using caching) 3-To prevent downloading the same content multiple times 4-Access enhancement or restriction

You must be clear which kind of proxy are you referring to, is it a web-proxy which the only purpose is to cache web contents and later on to be delivered to the clients in a strict manner ? or a protocol proxy which the clients are behind a single ip for the purpose of security or limited public ip address? Many people uses the term "proxy" and associates it with the web proxy such as the squid cache, although, it is correct to use the term when referring to a web cache proxy, in general terms, proxy is not just a web proxy alone but just one application of it.
SOCKS service is also a proxy, and it was widely used before the NAT was born, NAT and masquerading is also a proxy, - the client requests a tcp/udp connection in "behalf" of one particular ip source.

There's always a reason why to setup and use proxies in your network

1. To cache contents if you are after saving bandwidth usage
2. To regulate and filter web contents by its category for security, parental and access control lists
3. To regulate specific downloads like - images, installers, documents, etc..
4. To protect your machine - be anonymous

 

We should also consider the role of reverse proxies.
Reverse proxies plays a major role in reducing the IP address usage in your IP pool usage in a data center environment.
Imagine a scenario where you need some of your internal web applications to be publicly accessible, but you don't want to use public IPs for each and every application.
Well, you can do this using reverse proxies.
All you need is to have public IP in the reverse proxy server and proxy server should be able to communicate with the servers where your internal web applications are hosted through the private IP.
Next changes to be made is in your DNS server Let "internalapp1.test.com" be your application url.
When you setup the DNS records for this application ,its A record should be the public IP of reverse proxy server.
Next you need to tell your reverse proxy server to forward all the request to "internalapp1.test.com" to the private IP of the actual server in which "internalapp1.test.com" is hosted.
Your reverse proxy server will do the rest for you .
I have used Squid proxy server for setting up my reverse proxy.

You must be clear which kind of proxy are you referring to, is it a web-proxy which the only purpose is to cache web contents and later on to be delivered to the clients in a strict manner ? or a protocol proxy which the clients are behind a single ip for the purpose of security or limited public ip address? Many people uses the term "proxy" and associates it with the web proxy such as the squid cache, although, it is correct to use the term when referring to a web cache proxy, in general terms, proxy is not just a web proxy alone but just one application of it.
SOCKS service is also a proxy, and it was widely used before the NAT was born, NAT and masquerading is also a proxy, - the client requests a tcp/udp connection in "behalf" of one particular ip source.
so which proxy you are referring to??

Hello, Their are many reasons,

One of them to keep your server ip out of blocking by other servers.

-if u some work on other servers illegal or not and they block your site ip, u can't access them again, proxy give u benefit at this point.

-Hide your from others websites that can Sues u, when u harm other servers or websites.

 

Today, most proxies are web proxies, facilitating access to content on the World Wide Web: 1.
To apply access policy to network services or content, e.g.
to block undesired sites.
2.
To access sites prohibited or filtered by your ISP or institution.
3.
To bypass security / parental controls.
4.
To allow a web site to make web requests to externally hosted resources (e.g.
images, music files, etc.) when cross-domain restrictions prohibit the web site from linking directly to the outside domains.
5.
To allow the browser to make web requests to externally hosted content on behalf of a website when cross-domain restrictions (in place to protect websites from the likes of data theft) prohibit the browser from directly accessing the outside domains.

There are commonly two ways to use a proxy for surfing the web: configuring the browser to use a proxy server or by using a proxy web site to visit web pages.
To configure a browser to use a proxy server, users should have the address, port, username and password (if applicable) of the proxy server which they would like to use.
Most proxy servers charge nominal membership and access fees.
To use a proxy web site, search the Internet for reputable sources and consider their privacy policies, terms and conditions of use before using those sites to visit other web pages.

Yes it is very important to keep the Data save (each company have their own rules), i.e oil company used proxy to protect their data from any attack so the proxy filter important for them