> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mixpeek.com/docs/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Overview > Connect Mixpeek to your cloud object storage for seamless multimodal data ingestion. Integrate Mixpeek directly with your existing object storage solutions like AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage (GCS), and Azure Blob Storage to process and analyze your multimodal data where it lives. Object storage is the warehouse's canonical store, where all extracted features persist across tiers and serve as the durable source of truth regardless of which serving layer is active. Object storage systems are a fundamental component for storing large amounts of unstructured data, making them ideal upstream sources for Mixpeek. By connecting your buckets, you enable Mixpeek to automatically discover, process, and index your files, unlocking powerful search and analysis capabilities across images, videos, audio, PDFs, and more. ## Why Connect Object Storage? Process diverse file types stored in your buckets without needing to move data. Mixpeek accesses files directly from your provider. Leverage the scalability of cloud object storage. Mixpeek can handle growing volumes of data as your needs evolve. Set up automated pipelines. New files added to connected buckets can be automatically indexed and enriched by Mixpeek. Utilize secure authentication methods (like IAM roles or access keys) to grant Mixpeek the necessary permissions to access your data. ## Supported Providers Mixpeek supports direct integration with the major cloud object storage providers: Connect your Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) buckets. Integrate with Google Cloud Storage (GCS) buckets. Connect your Azure Blob Storage containers. S3-compatible egress-free storage on Cloudflare's edge. Low-cost S3-compatible object storage. S3-compatible hot object storage. Globally distributed S3-compatible storage. Connect Box workspaces with OAuth or CCG. Sync video assets from the Mux video infrastructure platform — playback metadata flows through to retriever results. Sync media assets from Iconik DAM — proxy files, metadata, and real-time webhook sync. Choose your provider above to find specific setup instructions. ## Best Practices for Data Structuring While Mixpeek can process complex, nested data structures within a single bucket connection, a more robust and scalable strategy often involves structuring your data upfront in your object storage, then relying on taxonomy joins to put them together. We rely on the post processing joins to intelligently combine related content after ingestion. This approach offers several advantages over trying to group files during the initial upload: By organizing content into separate buckets or prefixes, you make the relationships between files clear and programmatically accessible. This is more reliable than trying to infer relationships from file names or metadata. Mixpeek's taxonomy and clustering features allow you to join related content based on multiple criteria (IDs, metadata, semantic similarity) after ingestion, giving you more control over how content is combined. Processing pipelines become simpler and more focused when handling one type of content structure at a time, making it easier to scale and maintain. When new content is added to a structured bucket, Mixpeek can process it independently and then join it with related content, avoiding issues with partial uploads or timing dependencies. **Recommended Approach: Pre-Structured Pipelines** 1. **Separate Buckets or Prefixes:** Organize related but distinct types of content into separate S3 buckets or dedicated prefixes (folders) within a single bucket. * *Example:* For analyzing video content, you might store raw videos in `s3://my-videos/raw/`, extracted transcripts in `s3://my-videos/transcripts/`, and associated metadata JSON files in `s3://my-videos/metadata/`. 2. **Multiple Mixpeek Connections:** Set up distinct Mixpeek buckets & collections pointing to each specific bucket or prefix. 3. **Join in Mixpeek:** After ingestion, use Mixpeek's enrichment features like **Clustering** or **Taxonomies** (joining based on matching IDs or other rules) to link the related pieces of content (e.g., connecting a transcript to its corresponding video and metadata). This approach is more reliable than alternatives like: * Relying on file naming conventions or metadata (which can be inconsistent) * Using "agent mode" with LLMs to infer relationships (which is experimental and less predictable) * Trying to group files during upload (which can be fragile due to timing issues) Consider this approach if you are dealing with complex multimodal data where different components (like video, audio, text transcripts, metadata) need to be linked and analyzed together. ## Getting Started 1. **Choose your Provider:** Select the object storage provider you use (AWS S3, GCS, Azure Blob Storage). 2. **Configure Access:** Follow the provider-specific guide to grant Mixpeek secure access to your desired bucket(s). This typically involves setting up appropriate permissions (e.g., read access). 3. **Add Connection in Mixpeek:** Use the Mixpeek dashboard or API to add the connection details for your object storage bucket. 4. **Start Processing:** Once connected, Mixpeek can begin discovering and processing files according to your configured pipelines. Ready to connect your data? Select a provider guide above to begin.