How it works?

PixelBin integrates with your existing infrastructure so that you can access your files without uploading them to PixelBin's storage. The following is the set of events that occurs when you request a file from PixelBin.

Request flow when accessing files using external storage

Let's suppose you request https://cdn.pixelbin.io/v2/cloudname/pattern/filepath, here is what happens:

1. DNS routes the request to the nearest CDN edge location that can best serve the request, typically the nearest POP in terms of latency.
2. If the file is found in the CDN cache, a response is returned to the user. If not, the CDN does the following step.
3. The request is sent to the PixelBin server, and the file is checked in internal caches. If the file is found in the cache, a response is returned. The CDN caches the new file and returns the response to the user. If the internal cache doesn't have the file then the following step is taken.
4. PixelBin requests the original file from your datasource (which may be your AWS S3 bucket, a GCP storage, or any other datasource), optimizes and transforms it per the URL parameters and default account settings, and then returns a response. The user receives the final answer once the file is saved in both the PixelBin internal cache and CDN cache.

External storage flow