Navigate EU Data Sovereignty and Avoid CLOUD Act Risks

In 2025, data sovereignty is a strategic priority for 87% of European IT leaders. The core challenge is the U.S. CLOUD Act, which allows U.S. authorities to demand access to data held by U.S.-based providers, even if it is stored in European data centers. This creates a direct conflict with GDPR, which can impose fines of up to 4% of global turnover for non-compliance. Choosing a European alternative to Acronis is the first step to mitigating this risk.

A truly sovereign cloud provider operates exclusively in certified EU data centers and is governed strictly by EU law. This ensures your data remains shielded from foreign legal jurisdictions. With features like country-level geofencing, organizations can enforce data residency and meet the stringent requirements of GDPR and other industry-specific regulations. This approach provides the legal certainty that over 46% of organizations now demand from their cloud provider.

Eliminate Hidden Fees with a Predictable Cost Model

Unpredictable costs are a primary driver for seeking a new cloud backup solution. For many European businesses, nearly 50% of their cloud storage bill consists of variable fees for operations like data egress and API calls, not the storage itself. These hidden charges cause 55% of organizations to delay critical IT initiatives. An effective Acronis alternative must offer a transparent economic model.

A predictable-by-design approach eliminates these issues entirely. Consider a model with three key guarantees:

• Zero egress fees: Access and restore your data as often as needed without penalty.
• Zero API call costs: Integrate your tools and run your scripts without worrying about usage charges.
• No minimum storage duration: Pay only for what you use, for as long as you use it, increasing flexibility by 100%.

This structure gives MSPs and enterprise IT leaders what they need most: predictable margins and stable budgets, turning cloud storage from a variable expense into a reliable operational input.

Leverage Full S3 Compatibility for Seamless Migration

The S3 API is the undisputed standard for object storage, used by millions of applications worldwide. An Acronis alternative with 100% S3 API compatibility protects your existing investments in tools, scripts, and workflows. It ensures your current backup software, command-line tools, and custom applications continue to work without any code changes.

This compatibility simplifies migration to almost a zero-risk process. Teams can switch their storage backend by simply changing the endpoint and credentials in their existing configurations. Advanced S3 features like versioning, lifecycle management, and object tagging should work out-of-the-box. This seamless transition is critical for maintaining business continuity and allows a full migration in under 24 hours for most use cases.

Build a Modern Defense Against Ransomware

Ransomware attacks increasingly target backups to prevent recovery, making immutable storage a mandatory defense layer. Gartner estimates that 75% of IT organizations will face a ransomware incident by 2025. Immutable backups, using features like S3 Object Lock, create a version of your data that cannot be altered or deleted for a defined period-not even by an administrator with full credentials.

This creates a guaranteed-clean recovery point, allowing you to restore operations without paying a ransom. An effective ransomware protection strategy combines immutability with an "Always-Hot" storage model. This ensures all data is immediately accessible for restoration, eliminating the restore delays of 2 to 12 hours common with tiered or archived storage. This approach strengthens your 3-2-1 backup rule by ensuring at least one copy is untouchable and instantly available.

Prepare for the EU Data Act and NIS-2 Directive

Forthcoming EU regulations raise the stakes for compliance. The EU Data Act, fully applicable from September 12, 2025, mandates data portability and aims to eliminate vendor lock-in by making it easier to switch cloud providers. A provider built on open standards and S3 compatibility aligns perfectly with this, offering a proven exit path from day one. This transforms regulatory readiness into a competitive advantage.

Simultaneously, the NIS-2 Directive requires organizations in critical sectors to implement robust supply-chain security and incident reporting within 24 hours of detection. Choosing a compliant storage partner is essential. A sovereign cloud provider helps you meet these obligations by offering:

1. Documented, continuous security processes.
2. Transparent vulnerability management.
3. Immutable storage for data integrity, a core part of disaster recovery.
4. Strictly EU-based infrastructure and support.

This proactive alignment simplifies audits and strengthens your overall security posture.

Empower MSPs and Channel Partners with a Partner-Ready Platform

For MSPs, resellers, and system integrators, a successful Acronis alternative must be built for the channel. The foundation is a predictable financial model with zero egress or API fees, which allows for stable, defensible margins on Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) and archiving solutions. This removes the risk of client usage patterns eroding profitability, a common issue with hyperscale providers where costs can increase by over 10% unexpectedly.

A partner-ready platform provides the necessary tools for efficient management and scale. This includes a multi-tenant console with role-based access control (RBAC) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) for secure client account management. With full automation via API and CLI, partners can integrate the storage into their existing provisioning and billing systems. Recent distribution agreements with partners like api in Germany and Northamber plc in the UK demonstrate a growing ecosystem designed to support local MSPs.