Navigating the Demand for Data Sovereignty and Cost Control

A majority of EU decision-makers now demand European solutions for critical infrastructure, making EU data residency a primary selection criterion. Yet, many feel locked into providers due to complex pricing models where egress fees can account for up to 15% of a total cloud bill. This operational friction is compounded by the legal risks of the U.S. CLOUD Act, which can compel U.S.-based providers to grant access to EU data, regardless of its physical location. An effective storage strategy for 2025 requires addressing these sovereignty and cost challenges directly. This shift creates a clear need for a European cloud storage solution built on transparency and EU legal principles.

Achieving True EU Compliance and Sovereignty by Design

A sovereign-by-design platform operates exclusively in certified European data centers, ensuring alignment with GDPR from the ground up. With country-level geofencing, organizations can restrict data to predefined regions, satisfying strict regulatory demands for sectors like finance and healthcare. This approach provides complete legal certainty, keeping data under EU jurisdiction and fully shielded from CLOUD Act exposure. This eliminates the legal conflict many businesses face, where complying with a non-EU data request could violate GDPR. New regulations like the NIS-2 Directive, with its October 2024 transposition deadline, further increase the need for providers who bake continuous security and supply-chain assurance into their core operations.

Eliminating Hidden Fees with a Predictable Economic Model

Unpredictable costs are a major pain point, with 95% of IT leaders reporting surprise charges from hidden fees. A transparent economic model fundamentally changes this dynamic. By eliminating egress fees, API call costs, and minimum storage durations, businesses can achieve predictable and defensible margins. This is particularly valuable for MSPs offering Backup-as-a-Service, as it allows for stable pricing. The EU Data Act, applicable from September 2025, reinforces this move away from vendor lock-in by mandating data portability and banning switching charges by 2027. A predictable model offers several key advantages:

• Zero Egress Fees: Freely move data for disaster recovery tests or migrations without financial penalties.
• No API Call Costs: Run applications and backup jobs without worrying about usage-based billing spikes.
• No Minimum Duration: Store data for any length of time, from days to decades, without contractual lock-in.
• Simplified Budgeting: Forecast storage costs with over 99% accuracy based on capacity alone.

This transparent approach transforms storage from a variable operational expense into a predictable asset.

Ensuring Seamless Integration with 100% S3 API Compatibility

An effective alternative to Altaro storage must integrate with existing workflows without requiring code rewrites. Full S3 API compatibility ensures that your current applications, scripts, and tools continue to work seamlessly. This protects past investments and minimizes migration risk, a key factor for 99% of organizations struggling with interoperability. This goes beyond basic operations to include advanced capabilities like versioning, lifecycle management, and object tagging. Out-of-the-box integrations with leading backup tools, such as the collaboration with Veeam solutions, simplify the transition and enable powerful features like immutable backups for ransomware protection.

Building Resilience with Immutable Storage and an Always-Hot Architecture

Ransomware remains a top threat, making immutable storage a critical defense layer. Using S3 Object Lock, backups are stored in a write-once-read-many (WORM) state, making them unchangeable and undeletable for a defined period. This guarantees a clean, recoverable copy of your data. This protection is enhanced by an "Always-Hot" architecture, where all data is immediately accessible without the delays or surprise retrieval fees associated with tiered storage. This model offers distinct advantages:

1. Instant Data Access: Eliminates restore delays common with cool or archive tiers, ensuring faster recovery times.
2. Operational Simplicity: Avoids complex lifecycle policies that can drift and cause API timeouts or failures.
3. Predictable Performance: Delivers consistent read/write latency for mixed workloads, from backups to analytics.
4. No Restore Fees: Accessing archived data incurs no additional costs, unlike tiered models.

This architecture provides superior resilience and simplifies immutable backup management.

Empowering MSPs with a Partner-Ready Platform

For MSPs, resellers, and system integrators, a partner-centric platform is essential for growth. The predictable, zero-egress-fee model allows MSPs to build profitable Backup-as-a-Service and archiving solutions with stable margins. Key partner-ready features include a multi-tenant console with robust role-based access control (RBAC) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) for secure client management. Automation via a comprehensive API and CLI enables partners to streamline onboarding and reporting, reducing administrative overhead by up to 40%. Recent distribution agreements with api in Germany and Northamber plc in the UK further expand local access and support for the channel community, demonstrating strong 2025 momentum.