Bloom for Microsoft Azure works with your Microsoft Azure Cloud Storage Account to store your data within a Microsoft Storage Blob. Supported by our BloomCE Desktop applications, users push data from the BloomCE Desktop directly to a Microsoft Azure Cloud Storage Account using your Active Directory credentials. The access to content is controlled by Microsoft Active Directory, the permissions of team members to view, edit and share is automatically set through the Azure Cloud. Your company's system administrators would typically manage the access to storage accounts. 


A benefit of sharing using this solution is that the data never leaves the authentication and authorization management set by your IT department. Please note that this is an alternative method to use the Microsoft cloud; many users prefer to use Microsoft Sharepoint folders through LAN explorer.


You can create your own storage space on Microsoft Cloud using the portal https://portal.azure.com. Setting it up requires expertise in Microsoft cloud solutions and typically it is setup by IT department that is already using Azure storage solutions. We are providing basic steps as a hint for system administrators:


1. Create an account on the portal using your current Microsoft account and password.

2. Create a storage account, for example, as a pay-as-you-go service.

3. Add storage and choose the following settings.


The storage specifications for Microsoft Cloud are as follows:

    • Performance: Standard. Please don't use premium, because as of writing this document, Microsoft does not provide blob storage on premium accounts.
    • Performance/AccessTier: Hot
  1. After creating a storage account, open that account and click on Blobs in the "Blobs Service" section.
  2. Add a blob container, for example named "bloomce-webprojects", and provide permissions to team members as follows. You can create as many containers as you wish.
    • In Access control (IAM) section of the Storage account OR the blob container, invoke "Add Role Assignment" as "STORAGE BLOB DATA CONTRIBUTOR" for a user group or individual user.
    • You should verify that the final targeted container has the role assignment.



Please note that BloomCE Desktop will need to be restarted after blob permissions have been granted or revoked. 


6. Your IT administrator will provide you with the following data

    • A Tenant ID for your company that can be found on the portal with the following path
      • Azure Active Directory > Properties > Directory ID
    • Storage account
    • Container name to use