Deconstruct Your Cloud Bill to Uncover Hidden Backup Costs

Many IT leaders discover that their storage provider's bill contains surprise charges far exceeding the base storage rate. Egress fees, the cost to move your own data, can add thousands to your monthly cloud invoice without warning. These variable costs make budget forecasting for your Commvault environment a significant challenge for over 70% of organizations.

The problem extends beyond data retrieval, as API call charges for daily operations also accumulate rapidly. For data-intensive backup workloads, these combined hidden costs can inflate the total bill by 3-5x the advertised per-terabyte price. This pricing complexity is a deliberate strategy to discourage customers from leaving, fostering vendor lock-in. Understanding these cost drivers is the first step toward finding a viable Commvault storage alternative. This knowledge allows for a more accurate evaluation of storage solutions that prioritize financial predictability.

Adopt a Predictable Pricing Model to Eliminate Surprises

A predictable cost model is the foundation of an effective cloud strategy, eliminating the primary cause of budget overruns. Impossible Cloud offers a transparent pricing structure with zero egress fees, no API call costs, and no minimum storage durations. This model provides absolute budget certainty, allowing organizations to save 60-80% on typical cloud storage expenses. This approach transforms cloud storage from a variable operational expense into a predictable, fixed cost.

This transparent financial model is particularly beneficial for MSPs and enterprises managing large backup repositories. Here is how a predictable model creates value:

• It allows for precise total cost of ownership (TCO) calculations without complex forecasting.
• It removes financial penalties for accessing or migrating your data, breaking the cycle of vendor lock-in.
• It enables MSPs to build high-margin Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) offerings with confidence.
• It simplifies billing and frees up resources from auditing complex cloud invoices each month.

By choosing a predictable cloud billing model, you regain control over your IT expenditures. This financial stability is essential for scaling your backup infrastructure efficiently.

Ensure Seamless Integration with 100% S3 Compatibility

The S3 API has become the de-facto standard for cloud object storage, ensuring interoperability between applications and storage backends. For a Commvault Metallic alternative, full S3 compatibility is non-negotiable, as it allows your existing backup jobs, scripts, and workflows to function without modification. A simple endpoint change is all that is required for a seamless migration that takes hours, not weeks.

True S3 compatibility protects your past technology investments and minimizes migration risk entirely. Impossible Cloud provides a drop-in S3 replacement, supporting advanced capabilities like versioning and lifecycle management to ensure full functionality. This level of compatibility is critical for maintaining business continuity during a storage transition. Choosing a fully compatible S3-compatible storage solution is the lowest-risk path to lower costs.

Strengthen Ransomware Defense with Immutable Storage

Ransomware attacks increasingly target backup infrastructure to prevent recovery and force a payout, with an attack occurring every 11 seconds. Immutable storage, enabled through S3 Object Lock, provides your last line of defense by making backup data unchangeable and undeletable for a set period. This feature is a core requirement for cyber insurance policies and regulatory compliance frameworks.

Implementing immutability ensures that even if attackers gain access to your environment, your backup copies remain secure and pristine. Here are the key benefits of using immutable storage for your Commvault backups:

1. It creates a guaranteed-clean copy of data for reliable recovery after an attack.
2. It helps meet compliance requirements for data integrity and retention.
3. It renders ransomware encryption of backup files completely ineffective.
4. It provides peace of mind that your recovery plan is built on a secure foundation.

This capability transforms your backup repository into a secure vault, neutralizing the primary leverage of cybercriminals. This security posture is essential for any modern data protection strategy.

Accelerate Recovery Times with an Always-Hot Architecture

Traditional cloud storage often uses complex tiering models that move infrequently accessed data to slower, cheaper archive tiers. While seemingly cost-effective, this approach introduces significant delays and fees during data recovery, with restore times often taking hours. An "Always-Hot" storage model ensures all data is immediately accessible, reducing operational complexity and eliminating restore surprises.

Impossible Cloud's architecture delivers up to 20% faster backup and restore performance compared to traditional cloud storage. This immediate data access is critical during a disaster recovery scenario, where every minute of downtime costs money. The Always-Hot model avoids fragile lifecycle policies that can lead to API timeouts and failed recovery jobs. By choosing a high-performance cloud storage alternative, you ensure your RTOs are met consistently.

Empower MSPs with a Margin-First Partner Model

For Managed Service Providers, predictable margins are essential for building a profitable BaaS business. The elimination of egress and API fees provides a stable cost base, allowing MSPs to quote services with confidence and avoid margin erosion. Impossible Cloud's partner program is designed for growth, offering a multi-tenant console, automation via API/CLI, and full white-labeling capabilities.

This model shifts the narrative from simply reselling a vendor's product to owning a branded cloud service. MSPs can build a valuable asset with custom branding and full control over their margins. With enterprise-grade compliance certifications like SOC 2 and ISO 27001, partners can confidently serve regulated industries. This focus on partner success creates a competitive advantage in a crowded market.