Magazine
Enterprise Backup
Multi-Cloud Storage

Secure Your Data and Budget With Immutable Cloud Storage

29.08.2025

9

Minutes
Thomas Demoor
CTO Impossible Cloud
Eliminate unpredictable costs and vendor lock-in while gaining ironclad ransomware protection with an S3-compatible, egress-fee-free storage model.

For most enterprise IT leaders, cloud storage has become a source of financial stress and strategic risk. Surprise egress fees and complex API charges from major providers make budget forecasting nearly impossible, while proprietary systems create a vendor lock-in that stifles flexibility. Organizations report savings of 60-80% by moving to a transparent model. At the same time, with ransomware attacks increasingly targeting backup infrastructure, data immutability is no longer optional. This article outlines a practical path to adopting immutable cloud storage-a solution designed for cost predictability, data control, and mission-critical ransomware protection without requiring a single code rewrite.

Key Takeaways

  • Immutable cloud storage with no egress fees can reduce total cloud storage costs by 60-80% by eliminating unpredictable data transfer charges.
  • S3 Object Lock technology makes data unchangeable and undeletable, providing a robust defense against ransomware by neutralizing encryption threats.
  • An 'always-hot' storage architecture ensures all data is immediately accessible, improving backup and restore performance by up to 20% compared to tiered models.

Eliminate 60-80% of Costs by Escaping Egress Fees

Cost unpredictability is the leading cause of friction in cloud operations, with egress fees often accounting for 10-15% of a total cloud bill. These charges for moving data out of a provider's network can quickly inflate expenses, making ROI calculations unreliable and creating significant budget overruns. An S3-compatible alternative with a transparent pricing model eliminates these punitive fees entirely. This approach can reduce typical cloud storage expenses by 60-80%. Organizations gain the freedom to access and move their data as needed without financial penalty, transforming cloud storage from a variable liability into a predictable asset. This financial control is the first step toward a more sustainable S3 storage strategy.

Achieve Ransomware Resilience with Object Lock

Ransomware attacks have nearly doubled in incidence, making backup security a primary concern for business continuity. Immutable cloud storage leverages S3 Object Lock to create a write-once-read-many (WORM) state, making your backup data unchangeable and undeletable for a defined retention period. Even if threat actors gain access, they cannot encrypt or alter the protected data, neutralizing the attack's second stage. This feature is non-negotiable for cyber insurance compliance. It provides a logical air gap that ensures your data's integrity remains intact. With robust immutable backup, you can confidently restore operations after an incident.

Maintain Full Control with S3 Compatibility and Data Independence

Vendor lock-in is a top concern for 53% of cloud users, who feel trapped by proprietary APIs and punitive exit costs. A fully S3-compatible object storage solution acts as a drop-in replacement, allowing you to use existing applications, scripts, and tools without modification. This seamless migration capability protects past investments and reduces risk. By combining S3 API compatibility with a zero-egress-fee policy, you build an exit strategy directly into your architecture. This gives you the most secure cloud storage and preserves your negotiating power and long-term freedom. True data independence means you control where your data resides without financial or technical barriers.

Boost Performance with an 'Always-Hot' Storage Architecture

Complex data tiering often creates hidden operational costs through restore delays, API timeouts, and lifecycle policy failures. An 'always-hot' object storage model ensures all data is immediately accessible, eliminating the delays and surprise fees associated with retrieving data from archival tiers. This architecture delivers consistent, low-latency performance suitable for mixed workloads, from millions of small files to large-scale analytics. Customers can see up to 20% faster backup performance compared to traditional tiered storage. This simplified, high-performance approach keeps your third-party tools stable and your data ready for rapid restore when you need it most. An effective backup strategy depends on this level of accessibility.

Meet Enterprise Demands with Certified Security and Governance

For regulated workloads, enterprise-grade compliance is essential. Leading immutable cloud storage solutions provide key certifications to meet these stringent requirements. Here is what to look for:

  • SOC 2 Certification: Verifies robust controls over security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
  • ISO 27001 Certification: Confirms a systematic approach to managing sensitive company information so that it remains secure.
  • Granular IAM: Identity and Access Management with role-based access control (RBAC) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) ensures only authorized users access data.
  • End-to-End Encryption: Data is secured both in transit and at rest, with customer-controlled key management.


These features provide the verifiable security needed for financial services and healthcare data. This foundation of trust is critical for modern cloud backup storage.

Empower MSPs with Predictable Margins and Management

For Managed Service Providers (MSPs), profitability hinges on predictable costs. A storage model with zero egress or API fees allows MSPs to quote Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) and Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) offerings with confidence, knowing their margins are protected from surprise charges. This cost efficiency creates a significant competitive advantage. A partner-ready platform should also provide essential management tools. Key features for MSPs include:

  1. Multi-tenant management console for overseeing multiple clients.
  2. Automation capabilities via a full-featured API and CLI.
  3. Integrated reporting for clear visibility into usage and billing.
  4. Fast and simple onboarding to accelerate time-to-value.


This predictability enables MSPs to build more profitable and competitive service offerings, such as those following a 3-2-1 backup rule.

Implement a Practical Migration and Data Protection Plan

Transitioning to immutable cloud storage is a straightforward process designed to minimize disruption. Because the service is a drop-in S3 replacement, migration involves changing the endpoint and credentials in your existing backup software or scripts. Leading providers offer out-of-the-box integrations with tools like NovaBackup, simplifying the switch. A typical migration follows a clear path:

  • Step 1: Configure your new S3-compatible endpoint and access keys in your backup application.
  • Step 2: Create a new storage bucket with an Object Lock retention policy enabled.
  • Step 3: Run an initial full backup job to the new immutable storage target.
  • Step 4: Conduct a test restore to validate data integrity and accessibility.


This process ensures your object storage is secure and functional from day one.

FAQ

What is immutable cloud storage?

Immutable cloud storage is a type of object storage where data, once written, cannot be altered or deleted for a specified retention period. It uses features like S3 Object Lock to enforce a Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) policy, making it a critical tool for ransomware protection, regulatory compliance, and data archiving.


How does immutable storage prevent ransomware?

Ransomware works by encrypting a victim's files, making them inaccessible. With immutable storage, the original backup files cannot be encrypted or overwritten by the ransomware attack. This ensures that you always have a clean, uncorrupted copy of your data available for restoration, rendering the attack ineffective.


What does S3-compatible mean for my existing tools?

S3 compatibility means the storage service uses the same API (Application Programming Interface) as Amazon S3. This allows you to use your existing backup software, management scripts, and applications without any code changes. You simply change the service endpoint and credentials to migrate your workflows.


Can I really save 80% on cloud storage costs?

Yes. Traditional cloud providers' bills are inflated by hidden costs like egress fees (for data retrieval), API request charges, and minimum storage duration fees. A transparent pricing model that eliminates these charges can lead to savings of 60-80%, especially for backup and disaster recovery workloads that involve frequent data movement.


What compliance certifications are available?

Impossible Cloud is designed for enterprise-grade workloads and holds key compliance certifications, including SOC 2 and ISO 27001. This ensures our infrastructure and processes meet strict international standards for security, availability, and data protection, making it suitable for organizations in regulated industries.


How do I get started with Impossible Cloud?

Getting started is simple. You can talk to one of our experts for a personalized consultation, get a demo of our platform, or start a free trial to test our performance and S3 compatibility with your own tools. The onboarding process is designed to be fast and seamless.


Would you like more information?

Send us a message and our experts will get back to you shortly.