Your Data, Your Rules: Connecting mtdt.io to Private Cloud Storage
We’ve all been there: a critical migration fails or a user can’t save a record because of the dreaded "Storage Full" notification. In the Salesforce world, hitting your data limit usually means two things: a frantic cleanup session or a very expensive invoice for extra gigabytes.
But beyond the cost, there’s a bigger question of Control. Does your security team really want your historical backups sitting in a third-party "black box"? Or should that data live in your own corporate-governed AWS, Azure, or S3 bucket?
At mtdt.io, we believe you should own your data—literally. We don’t want to be your "data jailer." Instead of forcing you to use our storage, we let you plug in your own cloud providers. This gives you the freedom to archive, protect, and manage your Salesforce data on your own terms.
Supported Connections
We’ve built native support for the heavy hitters and the flexible newcomers:
- AWS S3: The industry standard. Simple, rugged, and reliable.
- Azure Blob Storage: Perfect for Microsoft-centric organizations that want to keep everything under one Azure tenant.
- Custom S3-Compatible Storage: This is the "wildcard" that gives you total freedom. You can connect to:
- Cloudflare R2: (Our favorite for zero egress fees!)
- Backblaze B2: Great for high-performance, low-cost archiving.
- Wasabi: Fast, "hot" storage without the complex tiering.
Why bother connecting your own storage?
It’s not just about ticking a box for the security team (though they will love you for it). It’s about building a leaner, faster Salesforce org.
1. Reclaim Your Org Space
Salesforce storage is expensive. Like, really expensive. By connecting your own storage, you can move old files and historical data out of Salesforce and into your S3 bucket. You keep the data safe and accessible, but you stop paying the "Salesforce Storage Tax."
2. Security & Compliance
When you use your own storage, you control the encryption keys, the geographic region (important for GDPR!), and the lifecycle policies. If you need to keep data for 7 years for an audit, you can set that policy once in your AWS console and forget about it.
3. Disaster Recovery (DR)
Having a copy of your metadata and data outside of the Salesforce infrastructure is a fundamental DR best practice. If a primary service has a hiccup, your business-critical data is still sitting in your corporate Azure or AWS environment, ready to be queried.
Power Features for File Backups
When you set up a storage connection in mtdt.io, you get granular control over how those files are handled:
- Version History: Don't just grab the latest file. You can choose to collect every version, so you can see how that "Final_v2_REALLY_FINAL.pdf" evolved.
- Smart Exclusions: Want to avoid backing up sensitive "Private" files? Just use a checkbox field (e.g.,
Exclude_from_Backup__c = TRUE) and mtdt will skip those records automatically. - The "Move" Strategy: This is the big one. You can set mtdt to Delete source files after backup. This automatically clears space in Salesforce the moment the file is safely tucked away in your external storage.
- Org Stats at a Glance: We show you the Total File Size across your org at a glance, so you always know exactly how much space you're working with before you start an archive run.
Combine Healthcheck with Storage Connections. Use Healthcheck to spot when your space utilization hits 80%, then trigger a File Backup to your S3 bucket with the "Delete source" option enabled. Total automation.
How to get started
Head over to the Storage Settings in your mtdt.io dashboard. Grab your Access Keys and you can have your private cloud connected in under five minutes.
FAQ
Which cloud storage providers does mtdt.io support? mtdt.io has native support for AWS S3 and Azure Blob Storage, plus any custom S3-compatible storage — including Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, and Wasabi. This covers the major providers as well as S3-compatible alternatives for teams that want lower egress fees or different pricing tiers.
Does mtdt.io delete files from Salesforce after backing them up? Yes — the "Move" strategy lets you configure mtdt.io to delete source files from Salesforce once they're safely backed up to your external storage, which frees up org storage space automatically.
Can I exclude certain files from being backed up to my own storage?
Yes. You can flag records with a checkbox field (for example Exclude_from_Backup__c = TRUE) and mtdt.io will skip those records during the backup run, which is useful for keeping sensitive or private files out of external storage.
Does mtdt.io keep every version of a file, or just the latest? You choose: mtdt.io can back up just the latest version of a file, or collect every version so you can see how a document evolved over time.
Why connect my own cloud storage instead of using mtdt.io's default storage? Connecting your own AWS, Azure, or S3-compatible bucket gives you control over encryption keys, geographic region, and retention/lifecycle policies — which matters for compliance regimes like GDPR — and it moves data out of Salesforce, reducing what you pay for Salesforce storage.
Ready to offload some data? Connect your storage in mtdt.io and start breathing easier.
Related: Back Up Salesforce Data to PostgreSQL · Salesforce File Backup · Disaster Recovery Playbook
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