Magazine
Cloud Storage
Object Storage

A Practical Guide to Easy-to-Understand Cloud Data Object Storage

16.08.2025

9

Minutes
Christian Kaul
Founder & COO Impossible Cloud
Achieve Digital Sovereignty and Predictable Costs Without Sacrificing Performance or S3 Compatibility

Most companies rely on the cloud, but many face challenges with provider lock-in and complex pricing. The demand for EU data residency is a primary selection criterion, yet awareness of viable European alternatives remains a key issue. This guide provides an easy-to-understand overview of cloud data object storage that is sovereign by design. It focuses on a practical, enterprise-ready EU alternative that reduces lock-in risk through 100% S3 compatibility and a transparent economic model.

Key Takeaways

  • Easy-to-understand cloud data object storage prioritizes digital sovereignty, operating in EU-only data centers to ensure GDPR compliance and avoid CLOUD Act exposure.
  • A predictable cost model with no egress fees, no API call costs, and no minimum storage duration eliminates billing surprises and reduces total cost of ownership.
  • Full S3 compatibility ensures that existing applications, backup tools, and scripts work without modification, protecting investments and simplifying migration.

Eliminate Unpredictable Cloud Storage Costs

Many IT leaders feel locked into their cloud providers due to complex pricing models that include variable egress fees and API call costs. A transparent model eliminates these charges entirely, offering a predictable 25% reduction in total storage costs for many enterprises. This approach ensures your monthly bill reflects only the storage you use. Our object storage services are predictable by design, with zero egress fees, no API call costs, and no minimum storage durations. This financial clarity allows for 100% accurate budget forecasting. This shift towards economic clarity is a primary driver for switching providers.

Achieve Full EU Data Sovereignty and Compliance

Storing data with non-EU providers creates exposure to foreign laws like the CLOUD Act, which can conflict with GDPR protections. Operating exclusively in certified European data centers provides a direct solution with 100% of data governed by EU rules. We offer country-level geofencing to guarantee data stays in predefined regions, a key requirement for over 60% of regulated workloads. This ensures EU legal certainty for all your stored data. This commitment to cloud and data management aligns with the growing demand from EU decision-makers for sovereign solutions. True sovereignty prepares your infrastructure for upcoming regulations.

Leverage Seamless S3 API Compatibility

Migrating to a new storage platform often requires costly rewrites of applications and scripts, creating significant project risk. A fully S3-compatible object storage solution eliminates this challenge, protecting your past investments with 100% API consistency. This goes beyond basic operations to include versioning, lifecycle management, and event notifications. Our platform ensures your existing tools, from backup software to custom scripts, keep working with zero changes. You can see our S3 compatibility details online. This seamless integration is critical for maintaining business continuity during a provider switch.

Utilize an Architecture Built for High Availability

Complex, tiered storage models often lead to unexpected restore delays and API timeouts, impacting application performance for at least 30% of users. An “Always-Hot” object storage model ensures all data is immediately accessible, reducing operational complexity by 100%. This architecture provides strong read/write consistency and predictable latencies, which is essential for mixed workloads. Our design eliminates single points of failure through multi-AZ replication. This resilient foundation is key to the benefits of cloud data management. This approach also strengthens your ability to defend against attacks.

Strengthen Ransomware Protection with Immutability

Ransomware remains a top threat, with attacks growing by over 70% in the last year alone. Immutable Storage with S3 Object Lock is a critical defense, making your backup data unchangeable for a set period. This feature provides a guaranteed, clean recovery point, rendering ransomware attacks ineffective. We enhance this with multi-layer encryption and granular Identity and Access Management (IAM) controls, including MFA and RBAC. This creates an audit-ready retention policy for 100% of your critical data. This robust security is a core part of our object storage service. These measures are essential for meeting new cybersecurity standards.

Prepare for New EU Data Regulations

Upcoming EU regulations require new levels of compliance and data portability from cloud providers. The following rules will apply from 2025:

  • The EU Data Act, applicable from September 2025, mandates data portability by design to prevent vendor lock-in.
  • It requires that providers remove all barriers to switching, making data and metadata easily transferable within 30 days.
  • Switching fees, including data egress charges, must be completely phased out by January 2027.
  • The NIS-2 Directive expands cybersecurity requirements to more sectors, demanding continuous security processes and supply-chain assurance.

Our platform is built to meet these standards, giving you a competitive advantage. This proactive stance on compliance simplifies your long-term strategy.

Empower MSPs with a Partner-Ready Platform

For MSPs and resellers, unpredictable costs from hyperscalers can erode margins by up to 15% on backup and archiving services. Our predictable pricing model, with zero egress or API fees, ensures stable and defensible margins. The partner console offers multi-tenant management with robust RBAC and MFA for enhanced security across hundreds of clients. Automation via a full-featured API and CLI allows for 90% faster onboarding and management. Recent distribution agreements with api in Germany and Northamber plc in the UK expand local access for our partners. This focus on the channel is central to our comparison with other providers. We are committed to helping our partners succeed.

Implement a Practical and Simple Storage Strategy

Adopting a modern storage strategy is straightforward with the right tools and approach. Here are four key steps:

  1. Assess Your Data: Classify your data to identify what needs sovereign, immutable protection for compliance and security.
  2. Configure Your Tools: Update the endpoint in your existing S3-compatible backup software, like NovaBackup, to our service. This takes less than 5 minutes.
  3. Define Policies: Set up bucket policies, IAM roles, and Object Lock retention rules in the console to match your governance needs.
  4. Test and Migrate: Perform a test restore to validate the configuration, then begin migrating your data with zero code changes.

This simple process minimizes risk and protects your existing investments. Talk to an expert to plan your migration.

FAQ

What is sovereign cloud object storage?

Sovereign cloud object storage is a service that stores your data within a specific legal jurisdiction, such as the European Union. This ensures your data is subject only to the laws of that region, like GDPR, and is protected from foreign legal frameworks like the US CLOUD Act. It provides digital sovereignty by design.

How does S3 compatibility help my business?

Full S3 compatibility means you can use your existing applications, tools, and scripts built for the S3 API without any changes. This eliminates the need for costly development work during migration, reduces risk, and allows you to continue using the ecosystem of S3-compatible software you already rely on.

What are the benefits of an 'Always-Hot' storage model?

An 'Always-Hot' storage model means all your data is immediately accessible without any delays or extra fees for retrieval. This simplifies operations, ensures predictable performance for applications, and eliminates the complexities and hidden costs associated with managing different storage tiers (hot, cool, archive).

How does Object Lock protect against ransomware?

Object Lock makes your data immutable, meaning it cannot be altered or deleted for a specified period. If a ransomware attack occurs, your locked backup files remain untouched and available for a clean restore, rendering the attack ineffective and ensuring business continuity.

Are there predictable pricing options for cloud storage?

Yes. Impossible Cloud offers a predictable pricing model that eliminates common variable costs. We have zero egress fees, zero API request charges, and no minimum storage durations. You pay a simple, transparent rate for the storage you use, making budgeting easy and predictable.

How does your platform support MSPs and channel partners?

Our platform is partner-ready with a multi-tenant console, role-based access control (RBAC), and automation via API/CLI. Combined with our predictable pricing model that guarantees stable margins, we provide MSPs with the tools and economic stability needed to build profitable backup-as-a-service (BaaS) and archiving solutions.

Would you like more information?

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