Routing & Acceleration

The location of a file and the route used to reach it are separate choices. A folder can store files in Europe while a user connects through another region, and a connection from Files.com to an external storage provider has its own route. Administrators need to consider each part when choosing between global performance and regional requirements.

For globally distributed users, the closest Files.com application server can receive a connection and forward it over the accelerated network to the required storage. A fixed regional endpoint instead brings connections through that region, even when a user or destination is elsewhere. This can add distance to a transfer. Web and API transfers to native storage can also use signed storage URLs directly, so the application connection is not necessarily the path taken by the file contents.

Storage and Connection Regions

Regional Storage controls where native files live. A folder inherits its parent's region unless it has an override. A Remote Server Mount's files live on the external system instead, in the location its operator chooses.

The site's root-folder region also supplies the region used by regional connection controls and Custom Domains. Moving a subfolder to another storage region does not move those site endpoints. For example, a Singapore folder on a site with its Custom Domain in Europe still has its application connections enter through Europe. A user in Singapore can therefore take a longer route to that folder than expected.

Use Global Acceleration for the choice of where users connect. Use Regional Data Routing for connections Files.com makes to Remote Servers. Dedicated source addresses are another routing choice: supported Remote Server connections using the site's dedicated IPs are also routed through the site's region. Review both the regional requirement and the partner's address allowlist when choosing the connection route.

Custom Domains and Regions

A Custom Domain and its dedicated addresses are located in the site's root-folder region. Connections through that domain use its region instead of choosing the Files.com server closest to each user. The custom hostname can preserve a partner's connection identity and provide dedicated addresses, but globally distributed users can incur an additional regional hop.

Keep the domain and the storage it serves in the same region where possible. If global transfer performance is the priority, prefer the closest-server routing available through Global Acceleration rather than introducing a Custom Domain solely to reduce an IP allowlist. A Custom Domain can still be required for branding, connection identity, or a partner's network policy; choose it with that routing consequence understood.

Changing the root-folder region also changes the region of the domain and its dedicated addresses. Plan that as a connection change, with DNS and partner allowlists considered alongside the storage migration.

Default Routing

A new site's root folder is stored in the USA, Remote Server connections route through the USA by default, and Global Acceleration lets users reach their closest Files.com servers. Dedicated-IP and Agent routing can change a Remote Server's connection path, so inspect the connection's configuration as well as the site setting.

The Allowed Countries setting is initially unconfigured, allowing connections from all countries. That access policy is separate from the region used to store or transmit files.

If your organization has geographic restrictions, Regional Requirements brings the storage, connection, temporary processing, and connected-system boundaries together. A folder's region alone does not establish that every part of a workflow remains there.