OCLC’s EZproxy available as a hosted service in Europe

Beginning in June 2012, University of the Arts London will be piloting an EZproxy authentication service hosted in OCLC's new data center in London.  The service will go live for libraries in Europe, Middle East and Africa, once the pilot has concluded in the summer.

EZproxy is the most widely used authentication and remote access software for libraries in the world.  It manages institutional data about staff and users, domains and IT settings plus libraries' electronic collections to facilitate access to online materials both inside and outside institutional IP ranges.  The service ensures that a user's interaction and engagement with their library's e-resources can be the same, wherever they happen to be when accessing them.   

The growth in investment in e-resources by libraries and the increasing numbers of users who choose to connect with these resources remotely has put even greater emphasis on the need for robust and trusted technology to manage increasing levels of access requests.  EZproxy has been available for libraries to deploy for 12 years, attracting over 4,000 customers worldwide.

The hosted service is expected to attract interest from libraries that are looking for a fully managed service where all aspects of its setup and configuration--plus its ongoing maintenance including IT monitoring, security, backup and recovery--will also be provided.  

Paul Mellinger, Electronic Information Manager at University of the Arts London said,

"The reason we chose hosted EZproxy was because University of the Arts London required a quick and simple replacement for our existing hosted proxy server.  Since EZproxy is the most widely-used proxy server for libraries, it was the obvious choice.  The ease of set-up and ongoing maintenance of the hosted version replicated our previous experience of using a hosted proxy server and therefore made it the ideal choice for integration with our library discovery service.  We very much look forward to full implementation".

Hosted EZproxy is also being offered as part of OCLC WorldShare License Manager, OCLC's wider solution for electronic resource access and management.  The service, announced earlier this year, addresses the needs of electronic services teams who are on the frontline in managing user requests and troubleshooting access issues.  License Manager combines a robust access and delivery mechanism for e-resources with an easy-to-build search and manage subscription and licence repository, hosted in the cloud and populated by data from the WorldCat knowledge base. 

To find out more about hosted EZproxy, OCLC are running a free-to-attend online introduction to the service on Friday 27th July at 2:00pm BST (3.00pm CEST). To register to attend please go to www.oclc.org/info/hostedezproxy.