Magazine
S3 Compatible Storage
Hybrid Cloud

Finding a Scalable Alternative to Synology C2 Storage to Cut Cloud Costs by up to 80%

22.09.2025

11

Minutes
Christian Kaul
CEO Impossible Cloud
Eliminate unpredictable egress fees and vendor lock-in with a performance-driven, S3-compatible object storage solution designed for enterprise and MSP workloads.

When scaling NAS backups and archives, many IT leaders hit a wall of unpredictable costs that erode ROI. Egress fees and API charges can inflate a monthly bill by 3-5x, turning a cost-effective strategy into a financial burden. This article presents a scalable alternative to Synology C2 Storage, focusing on an S3-compatible object storage model built for cost predictability, data control, and performance. We will explore how eliminating egress fees, embracing an always-hot architecture, and leveraging enterprise-grade features can reduce total cost of ownership by 60-80% while strengthening your ransomware defenses.

Key Takeaways

  • Eliminate unpredictable cloud storage costs by choosing a provider with zero egress fees and API call charges, saving 60-80% on your total bill.
  • Leverage a 100% S3-compatible alternative to ensure your existing backup tools and applications work without modification, minimizing migration risk.
  • Protect your data from ransomware with immutable storage and Object Lock, ensuring a clean, unchangeable copy is always available for recovery.

Eliminate 60-80% of Cloud Storage Costs with a Predictable Model

Cost unpredictability is the number one pain point for 95% of organizations using cloud storage. A transparent pricing model with zero egress fees, no API call costs, and no minimum storage duration can eliminate 60-80% of typical cloud expenses. Many enterprises find that storage fees account for nearly 50% of their total cloud bill, leading to significant budget overruns.

This cost-efficient-by-design approach provides the financial predictability needed for accurate budget planning. More than 55% of U.S. organizations report that egress fees have delayed critical IT initiatives. By removing these variable charges, you can build a sustainable financial model for your data strategy. Explore our S3-compatible storage TCO to see how these savings accumulate.

A fixed-cost model ensures your bill reflects only the storage you use, not how you access it. This transition from complex billing to a predictable operational expense is the first step toward regaining control over your cloud infrastructure spending. This financial stability is foundational for scaling operations without unexpected penalties.

Achieve Drop-In S3 Compatibility Without Reworking Workflows

True S3 compatibility is a table-stakes requirement for any modern storage alternative. A fully compatible API ensures that your existing applications, scripts, and backup tools continue to work without any code rewrites, protecting investments that amount to thousands of development hours. You simply change the endpoint, and your workflows keep running, accelerating time-to-value by over 50%.

A robust S3 alternative supports not just basic operations but also advanced capabilities like versioning, lifecycle management, and event notifications. This ensures a seamless migration and operational consistency for 100% of your S3-native tools. This drop-in replacement capability minimizes migration risk and allows your team to focus on value instead of rework. Learn more about the best storage for NAS backup.

Here is a checklist for evaluating S3 API compatibility:

  • Support for standard object operations (GET, PUT, LIST, DELETE).
  • Advanced features like Object Versioning and Lifecycle Policies.
  • Compatibility with leading SDKs, CLIs, and backup tools.
  • Support for presigned URLs for time-bounded access.
  • IAM policies that mirror existing permission structures.

This level of compatibility makes the transition from another provider a simple, one-day task. This seamless integration is key to unlocking immediate cost savings and operational benefits without disrupting business continuity.

Fortify Ransomware Defenses with Immutable, Always-Hot Storage

Ransomware attacks increasingly target backup infrastructure, making immutable storage a non-negotiable security control for over 80% of organizations. Using S3 Object Lock, you can make backup data unchangeable for a defined retention period, creating a WORM (Write-Once-Read-Many) model. This ensures that even if attackers gain access, they cannot encrypt or delete your critical recovery points.

This feature is essential for meeting compliance requirements for cyber insurance and industry regulations. An "Always-Hot" storage model complements this by ensuring 100% of your data, including immutable backups, is immediately accessible for recovery. There are no restore delays or retrieval fees, which can reduce recovery time objectives (RTOs) by hours. Compare this with other providers in our Wasabi vs Impossible Cloud analysis.

Immutable storage provides a guaranteed clean copy of your data for recovery, neutralizing the primary threat of ransomware. This proactive defense mechanism is a core component of a modern data resilience strategy, ensuring business continuity in the face of escalating cyber threats.

Boost Performance and Simplify Operations with an Always-Hot Architecture

Complex data tiering often creates more problems than it solves, leading to restore delays, API timeouts, and surprise retrieval fees that can be 3x the storage cost. An always-hot object storage model eliminates this complexity entirely. All data is stored in a single, high-performance tier, ensuring immediate accessibility and predictable low latency for every workload.

This architecture can deliver up to 20% faster backup and restore performance compared to traditional tiered cloud storage. By avoiding fragile lifecycle policies, you reduce operational overhead for your IT team by at least 15%. Your applications remain stable, and restores happen in minutes, not hours. See how performance impacts cost in our price-performance ratio guide.

Key benefits of an always-hot model include:

  1. No Restore Delays: Every object is immediately available, which is critical for disaster recovery scenarios.
  2. No Tiering Fees: You avoid the hidden costs associated with data retrieval from archival tiers.
  3. Simplified Management: Eliminates the need to create and manage complex data lifecycle policies.
  4. Consistent Performance: Predictable read/write latency supports mixed workloads, from backup to analytics.

This simplified, high-performance model reduces total cost of ownership by removing hidden operational and financial penalties. It provides a more resilient and efficient foundation for data-intensive applications, setting the stage for greater control and independence.

Empower MSPs with Predictable Margins and a Whitelabel Platform

For Managed Service Providers, predictable costs are the foundation of profitable services. A storage solution with zero egress or API fees allows MSPs to build high-margin Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) offerings with confidence. This model prevents the margin erosion that 70% of MSPs experience from surprise hyperscaler bills.

The ability to launch a branded cloud service via a whitelabel platform shifts the dynamic from reselling to owning. With a custom domain and UI, MSPs build their brand equity and control the customer relationship end-to-end. This ownership model can increase customer retention by up to 25%. Explore how to leverage rclone with our S3 provider comparison.

Predictable margins and brand ownership empower MSPs to build a valuable, sellable asset, not just a recurring revenue stream. This strategic shift is supported by a partner-ready platform designed for multi-tenant management and automation, enabling scalable growth.

Ensure Enterprise-Grade Governance with Certified Security and Data Control

For enterprises in regulated industries like finance or healthcare, compliance is a primary requirement. A storage platform with SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certifications provides third-party validation of enterprise-grade security controls. These certifications reduce the burden of due diligence for 100% of compliance checks and demonstrate a commitment to data protection.

Data control is further enhanced through features like country-level geofencing, which keeps data within a predefined region to meet data residency requirements. Granular identity and access management (IAM) with role-based access control (RBAC) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) ensures that only authorized users can access sensitive data. This level of control is critical for mitigating security risks.

Combining top-tier compliance with granular access controls gives organizations the confidence to store sensitive workloads without vendor lock-in. This foundation of trust and security is the final piece in building a truly independent and resilient data strategy.

FAQ

How does your pricing model achieve 60-80% cost savings?

Our model eliminates the variable costs that cause budget overruns with major cloud providers. We offer transparent, predictable pricing with no egress fees, no API request charges, and no minimum storage durations. You only pay for the storage you consume, making it ideal for backup, archive, and disaster recovery use cases.

Is your platform compatible with my existing backup software?

Yes. We provide full S3 API compatibility, which means our storage works as a drop-in replacement for any application or tool that uses the S3 protocol. This includes leading backup software, command-line tools, and custom scripts, allowing for a seamless migration with no code changes.

How does Object Lock protect my data from ransomware?

Object Lock allows you to set a retention policy on your data, making it immutable. Once locked, an object cannot be deleted, modified, or overwritten by anyone-including administrators-until the retention period expires. This creates a tamper-proof backup copy for guaranteed recovery after a ransomware attack.

What enterprise compliance certifications do you hold?

We are certified for SOC 2 and ISO 27001, demonstrating that our security and operational controls meet stringent, internationally recognized standards. This is ideal for organizations in regulated industries like finance and healthcare that require verified, enterprise-grade security for their data.

Can I rebrand your storage service for my MSP clients?

Absolutely. Our whitelabel-ready platform allows MSPs and resellers to offer our S3-compatible storage under their own brand, with a custom domain and UI. This, combined with our predictable pricing, enables you to build high-margin BaaS and DRaaS solutions while owning the customer relationship.

How do I get started with a migration?

Getting started is simple. Since our platform is fully S3-compatible, you only need to update the endpoint and credentials in your existing tools or applications to point to our service. Talk to an expert today to get a demo or start a free trial and see how quickly you can migrate.

Would you like more information?

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