Keep data on your own Azure Storage

ThingLink Enterprise customers can now store the majority of their ThingLink content on their own Azure Storage. This gives you full control over your organization's data and provides easy access to all media files that are used by ThingLink.

Please note that the integration described in this article must be enabled by a member of ThingLink staff and may be unavailable on your plan. If you are interested in using this feature, contact us at sales@thinglink.com. 

Setting up your Azure Storage account & containers for ThingLink

Once ThingLink's representative has enabled the integration on your account, go to portal.azure.com.

1. Go to 'Storage accounts' and create a new storage account. You can use the default instance details.
2. Open your new storage account and select 'Containers'
3. Add a new container. Make sure that the container name is set to 'content' and the public access level is set to 'Blob':
   
4. Add another container called 'thumbnails'. Use the same public access level.

Linking Azure Storage containers to your ThingLink account

1. In your ThingLink account, go to 'Account settings' and select the 'Basic media settings' tab on the left
2.  At the bottom of the page, paste your Azure storage account name and key1. You can find both values on the Azure portal under the 'Storage accounts' - your new storage account - 'Access keys':
   
3. Click the 'Save changes' button and try to upload a new image to ThingLink.

F.A.Q. & miscellaneous notes

What data will be stored on Azure?

All images and 360 images, their thumbnails and all tag content will be stored in your Azure account. Background videos, thumbnails and custom icons will be stored on ThingLink servers.

 Does this affect all of my content?

No. Any content that was uploaded before you've enabled the integration will be stored on ThingLink's servers. 

What happens if I disable the integration?

If you disable the integration via account settings, all newly uploaded content will be stored on ThingLink's servers. However, any content that was uploaded while the integration was active will still use your Azure Storage.

If you change the access key or the public access level, your ThingLinks will return 404 error.

What happens if I delete the files on Azure?

ThingLink will continue displaying cached content for up to an hour. Once an hour passes, any deleted content will be replaced with the default '404 missing thumbnail' image.

What happens if I delete my ThingLinks?

Deleting content on ThingLink does not delete it on your Azure Storage.