# Connecting storage bucket

Cloudimage can download your origin images/files from any server or storage bucket over HTTP/HTTPS/FTP. Setting up an external storage is optional and you can use Cloudimage with your origin image URLs as shown in the introduction - [readme](https://docs.cloudimage.io/readme "mention").

If the images are not publicly available, you have to configure your storage containers and set authentication parameters. If you are filtering access to your image storage by IP addresses, [Contact us](https://admin.cloudimage.io/contact-us/) to get help with configuring [proxy](https://admin.cloudimage.io/project/settings/proxy) for Cloudimage to request origin images over the specified proxy and have all Cloudimage requests coming from the same IP address. 

You can set up external storage in the *Storage* section in the admin panel by using the *Connect External Storage* button.

<figure><img src="https://content.gitbook.com/content/IDIcmPiz7q6Sr6ZHHQxV/blobs/4l4rvirWCA30zRw0Kd1a/Screenshot%202024-02-26%20at%2017.40.09.png" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

You can set up an [amazon-s3](https://docs.cloudimage.io/setup/connecting-storage-bucket/amazon-s3 "mention"), [google-cloud-storage](https://docs.cloudimage.io/setup/connecting-storage-bucket/google-cloud-storage "mention"), [microsoft-azure-blob](https://docs.cloudimage.io/setup/connecting-storage-bucket/microsoft-azure-blob "mention") or any generic HTTP-based storage (see [basic-authentication-http](https://docs.cloudimage.io/setup/connecting-storage-bucket/basic-authentication-http "mention").

<figure><img src="https://content.gitbook.com/content/IDIcmPiz7q6Sr6ZHHQxV/blobs/3wFWAeh0nwW9Z2y9LPJ7/si2.png" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>