Navigate Europe's Data Sovereignty Imperative

Under GDPR, organizations are responsible for ensuring personal data is processed lawfully and securely, which includes data held in backups. Storing data within the EU is the first step, but true sovereignty depends on the legal jurisdiction of your storage provider. A provider subject to the U.S. CLOUD Act can be compelled to surrender data to U.S. authorities, regardless of where it is stored. This creates a direct conflict with GDPR's mandate to protect EU data from foreign access without a valid legal treaty. For the 71% of CEOs who list data privacy as their top risk, this legal ambiguity is an unacceptable liability. Choosing a 100% European-owned and operated provider for your GDPR-compliant S3 storage is the only way to close this compliance gap. This strategic decision ensures your Acronis backups remain exclusively under EU law, moving your data protection strategy from reactive to resilient.

Align Acronis Backups with Next-Generation EU Regulations

The European regulatory landscape continues to evolve, demanding more from cloud service providers and their customers. The EU Data Act, fully applicable from September 2025, introduces strict rules to prevent vendor lock-in and ensure data portability. It mandates that customers can switch providers easily, a process hindered by providers who charge high egress fees. Your choice of S3 storage must support this right to portability by design. Simultaneously, the NIS-2 Directive expands cybersecurity obligations, requiring robust supply-chain security and continuous risk management. Cloud storage is a critical part of this supply chain, making your provider's security posture your own. A provider that bakes these standards into its operations demonstrates the regulatory readiness needed to future-proof your Acronis backup strategy. This proactive alignment ensures you are prepared for audits and protected against emerging threats long before they become urgent problems.

Architect for Resilience with Immutable, Always-Hot Storage

Effective ransomware protection for Acronis backups requires a storage architecture that is both secure and instantly responsive. S3 Object Lock provides immutability, creating a Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) state that makes backup files undeletable and unchangeable for a set period. This is a critical last line of defense, as Gartner estimates 75% of IT organizations will face a ransomware incident by 2025. While immutability secures the data, an "Always-Hot" architecture ensures it is always available for immediate restore, unlike complex tiered models that introduce delays and fees.

An Always-Hot model offers four distinct advantages for Acronis users:

• Instant Recovery: All data is immediately accessible, eliminating restore delays that can cripple business operations after an attack.
• Predictable Performance: Consistent read/write latency ensures backup and restore jobs run without timeouts or failures.
• Simplified Operations: It removes the need to manage complex lifecycle policies, reducing the risk of misconfiguration.
• No Surprise Fees: With no charges for data retrieval or API calls, total cost of ownership is transparent and predictable.

This combination of features makes sovereign object storage for Acronis a resilient and efficient foundation for any disaster recovery plan.

Demand True S3 Compatibility and Seamless Integration

Connecting Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud to an S3 target should be a fast and flawless process. True S3 compatibility goes beyond basic PUT/GET commands; it includes full support for advanced features like versioning, granular IAM policies, and lifecycle management that your existing tools and scripts depend on. A fully compatible endpoint ensures your investments in automation are protected and migration is risk-free. The entire integration process requires only three parameters and takes less than 10 minutes.

Follow these four steps to connect Acronis to a compliant S3 endpoint:

1. Create a Bucket: In your provider's console, create a new bucket in a specified European region, ensuring data residency from the start.
2. Generate Access Keys: Create a new access key and secret key pair with permissions scoped only to the newly created bucket.
3. Configure Acronis: In the Acronis console, add a new 'S3-compatible' storage location, entering the service endpoint URL, bucket name, and credentials.
4. Test and Deploy: Assign the new storage to a protection plan and run a test backup to confirm the connection works perfectly.

This straightforward setup is a hallmark of the best S3 storage for Acronis, enabling you to operationalize a compliant solution quickly.

Unlock Predictable Margins and Compliance for MSPs

For Managed Service Providers, profitability depends on predictable costs and operational efficiency. A storage partner with a transparent pricing model-zero egress fees, no API call charges, and no minimum storage durations-is essential for building defensible margins on Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) offerings. With the EMEA MSP market projected to grow 12% in 2025, differentiation through compliance and cost-effectiveness is key. A partner-ready platform provides the tools needed to scale this advantage across your client base. Features like a multi-tenant console with role-based access control (RBAC), automation via API/CLI, and clear reporting simplify management and onboarding. Furthermore, expanding distribution channels, such as with api in Germany and Northamber plc in the UK, provide local access and support for resellers. This ecosystem makes it simple to deliver compliant object storage for Acronis in Europe as a value-added service.