Microsoft Visual Basic Design Patterns (Microsoft Professional Series)

The Smart Proxy design pattern is useful in the following circumstances:

• If you want to provide transparent access with the most optimal performance to the real object, which does not reside in the same address space as the client thread that initiated the request
• If you want to regulate access to the real object by requiring the client to have specific rights to invoke the properties and methods of the real object
• If you want to defer creation of the real object until it's needed