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Cloud Storage
Object Storage

Achieve Digital Sovereignty Beyond AWS Cloud Object Storage

27.09.2025

10

Minutes
Thomas Demoor
CTO Impossible Cloud
How European enterprises can meet 2025 compliance demands with a sovereign, S3-compatible alternative that eliminates unpredictable costs.

For UK and EU businesses, the landscape of cloud data management is rapidly evolving. Dependence on non-EU hyperscale platforms creates significant compliance risks and budget instability, with nearly 50% of cloud storage budgets consumed by usage fees alone. The enforcement of the EU Data Act in September 2025, coupled with the extraterritorial reach of the US CLOUD Act, makes digital sovereignty a board-level imperative. This article outlines a strategic shift towards a European, S3-compatible AWS cloud object storage model that delivers performance parity, regulatory alignment, and predictable economics without vendor lock-in.

Key Takeaways

  • True digital sovereignty requires storing data with a 100% European-owned and operated provider to eliminate exposure to foreign laws like the US CLOUD Act.
  • Eliminating egress fees and API call charges is the key to predictable cloud storage costs, preventing vendor lock-in and protecting MSP margins.
  • An "Always-Hot" storage architecture simplifies operations and ensures immediate data access for critical recovery scenarios, outperforming complex tiering models.

Navigate the EU's Sovereignty Mandate

The demand for European data solutions is no longer theoretical; it's a core business requirement driven by powerful regulations. The US CLOUD Act allows US authorities to compel access to data held by American companies, regardless of where it is stored globally. This directly conflicts with GDPR, which requires a legal basis for transferring personal data outside the EU. For the 70% of EU decision-makers prioritizing European solutions, this creates an unacceptable compliance gap. Storing data with a strictly EU-based provider is the only certain way to avoid this jurisdictional conflict. A sovereign-by-design alternative to AWS S3 ensures data remains under EU law, aligning with the upcoming Cloud and AI Development Act aimed at tripling the EU's data processing capacity by 2030. This regulatory momentum makes choosing a European provider a strategic necessity.

Eliminate Unpredictable Cloud Costs

Financial predictability is a major challenge with traditional AWS cloud object storage models. Egress fees—charges for moving data out of a provider's network—can consume 10% to 15% of a total cloud bill, creating significant vendor lock-in. Some studies estimate that major providers mark up these data transfer costs by nearly 8000% over their wholesale price. Impossible Cloud eliminates this burden entirely with a transparent economic model. We offer zero egress fees, no charges for API calls, and no minimum storage durations. This predictable-by-design approach provides stable, defensible margins, especially for MSPs offering Backup-as-a-Service. Our transparent pricing ensures your total cost of ownership is clear from day one, a stark contrast to the 50% of EMEA firms that exceeded their cloud storage budgets in 2023. This financial clarity allows for better business planning and resource allocation.

Ensure Seamless S3 API Compatibility

Migrating to a new storage platform should not require rewriting applications or retraining your team. Full S3 API compatibility is essential for a frictionless transition, protecting years of investment in existing tools and scripts. Our platform ensures that your current applications, command-line interface (CLI) tools, and software development kits (SDKs) continue to work without modification. This goes beyond basic operations to include advanced capabilities. Here is what enterprise-ready compatibility includes:

  • Support for object versioning to protect against accidental deletions or corruption.
  • Lifecycle management policies to automate data handling.
  • Event notifications to trigger downstream workflows.
  • Granular access control lists (ACLs) for precise permissions.
  • Object Lock for immutable, WORM-compliant storage.

True compatibility minimizes migration risk to near zero and preserves your operational agility. With a fully cost-efficient S3-compatible object storage, you can switch providers with just a single line of code. This level of integration is foundational to avoiding vendor lock-in.

Leverage an Always-Hot Architecture

Complex storage tiering models, which move data between hot, cool, and cold layers, often create hidden operational costs and restore delays. An "Always-Hot" architecture, where all data is immediately accessible, eliminates this complexity. This model ensures consistent, predictable low latencies for all workloads, from millions of small files to large-scale analytics and disaster recovery operations. There are no surprise fees or multi-hour delays when you need to restore critical data. Our architecture is built for consistency and availability, with multi-AZ replication eliminating single points of failure. This approach is one of the key advantages of object storage services designed for resilience. It simplifies your data management, ensures third-party backup tools function without API timeouts, and strengthens your overall recovery posture. This architectural choice directly supports business continuity.

Implement Robust Ransomware Protection

Ransomware attacks are escalating, with 96% of victim organizations reporting that their backups were targeted. Your last line of defense is a backup that cannot be compromised. Impossible Cloud provides Immutable Storage using S3 Object Lock, a feature based on Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) technology. Once data is written, it cannot be altered or deleted for a user-defined retention period, even by an administrator with root credentials. This makes your backups fundamentally resistant to ransomware encryption. Our security posture is further strengthened by:

  1. Multi-layer encryption for data in transit and at rest.
  2. Identity and Access Management (IAM) with multi-factor authentication (MFA) and role-based access control (RBAC).
  3. Support for external identity providers via SAML/OIDC.
  4. Operation exclusively within certified European data centers under EU control.

This comprehensive security framework is essential for protecting your most critical digital assets.

Prepare for 2025 EU Data Regulations

Two key EU regulations are set to redefine data governance in 2025, making regulatory readiness a competitive advantage. The EU Data Act, applicable from September 2025, mandates data portability and interoperability to prevent vendor lock-in. It requires providers to facilitate seamless switching, including the transfer of metadata and access information, with a maximum transfer time of 30 days. The NIS-2 Directive, which member states must adopt by October 2024, imposes stricter cybersecurity requirements, including supply-chain assurance and continuous security processes. Our platform is designed with these principles at its core, ensuring you have a proven exit path and a compliant security posture. By choosing a provider already aligned with these future standards, you de-risk your compliance strategy and can migrate data to S3-compatible cloud with confidence. This proactive stance on regulation is vital for long-term success.

Activate Your Partner and MSP Channel

For Managed Service Providers, resellers, and system integrators, predictable margins are everything. Our channel-first model is built on the economic stability that our zero-egress-fee policy provides. This allows partners to build and price services like BaaS and archiving with confidence, knowing their margins are protected from volatile usage charges. We empower our partners with tools designed for efficiency and scale. The partner console features multi-tenant management, RBAC, and detailed reporting, while automation is enabled via a comprehensive API and CLI. With fast onboarding and growing local access through distributors like api in Germany and Northamber plc in the UK, we are expanding our ecosystem. This focus on the channel ensures our partners can deliver sovereign, compliant, and cost-effective Impossible Cloud object storage solutions to their clients.

FAQ

How does Impossible Cloud ensure GDPR compliance?

Impossible Cloud ensures GDPR compliance by being a European company that stores all customer data exclusively in certified European data centers. Our services include country-level geofencing to keep data within specific EU regions, and our governance model is designed to adhere strictly to EU privacy laws, avoiding exposure to third-country legal frameworks.

What does 'no egress fees' actually mean for my business?

No egress fees means you will never be charged for moving your data out of Impossible Cloud. This gives you the freedom to access, move, or migrate your data to another platform or on-premises at any time without financial penalty, which reduces vendor lock-in and makes your total storage cost completely predictable.

Is it difficult to migrate from an existing S3 provider?

Migration is straightforward due to our full S3 API compatibility. In most cases, you only need to change the endpoint in your existing applications or backup software to point to Impossible Cloud. Your existing tools, scripts, and workflows will function without any code changes, ensuring a seamless transition.

How does Object Lock protect my data from ransomware?

Object Lock allows you to set a retention policy on your data, making it immutable. This means that for the duration of the policy, the data cannot be deleted, modified, or encrypted—even by an account with administrative privileges. If you are hit by a ransomware attack, your immutable backups remain untouched, guaranteeing a clean copy for recovery.

What is an 'Always-Hot' storage model?

An 'Always-Hot' storage model means all your data is stored in a single, high-performance tier and is always immediately accessible. Unlike tiered models that move data to slower, cheaper 'cold' storage, our approach eliminates restore delays and retrieval fees, simplifying data management and ensuring predictable performance for all your files.

What support do you offer for MSPs and channel partners?

We provide a partner-ready platform with a multi-tenant console for managing multiple clients, role-based access control (RBAC), and comprehensive reporting. Our predictable pricing model with no egress or API fees allows partners to build services with stable, defensible margins. We also offer automation via API/CLI and support through our growing distributor network.

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