Cloud Storage
S3 Compatible
affordable s3 object storage without egress fees
Achieve Predictable Costs with Affordable S3 Object Storage Without Egress Fees
Are unpredictable cloud bills straining your IT budget by 10-15%? Hidden data transfer charges, known as egress fees, create significant financial risk. Discover an affordable S3 object storage without egress fees that delivers cost certainty and full EU compliance.
Key Takeawys
Eliminate unpredictable cloud costs by choosing an affordable S3 object storage solution with zero egress fees, API call costs, or minimum storage durations.
Ensure true digital sovereignty and GDPR compliance by using a European cloud provider that is immune to the U.S. CLOUD Act.
Simplify operations and reduce risk with a fully S3-compatible, 'Always-Hot' storage architecture that eliminates restore delays and hidden retrieval fees.
For many UK and EU enterprises, cloud storage has become a source of budget anxiety. While initial storage prices seem low, the total cost of ownership quickly escalates due to variable charges for data egress and API calls, which can account for over 15% of a total cloud bill. This financial uncertainty is compounded by regulatory pressure for true data sovereignty. Businesses need a practical, enterprise-ready EU alternative that offers performance, full S3 compatibility, and a predictable economic model. An affordable S3 object storage without egress fees provides a direct path to reducing vendor lock-in and achieving both financial control and digital sovereignty.
Eliminate the 15% Budget Overrun from Hidden Egress Fees
Unplanned egress charges consistently disrupt IT budgets for over 90% of companies using hyperscale clouds. Studies show these fees for data transfer can inflate monthly cloud bills by 10% to 15%. This makes forecasting annual storage costs nearly impossible for data-intensive workloads like backup and disaster recovery. For example, a single petabyte transfer can incur tens of thousands of dollars in unexpected charges.
This pricing model creates significant financial friction for routine operations. Restoring critical data, migrating between providers, or sharing large datasets with partners triggers punitive costs. A zero-egress model removes this penalty entirely, making costs predictable down to the last gigabyte. One organization successfully cut its monthly egress costs from $20,000 to $10,000 by redesigning its network architecture away from this model. Choosing an affordable S3 object storage without egress fees is the first step toward financial predictability.
Predictable costs also empower Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to offer competitive services with stable margins. This financial stability allows for better long-term planning and resource allocation, moving IT from a cost center to a strategic enabler.
Strengthen EU Data Sovereignty and Avoid CLOUD Act Exposure
Data sovereignty has become a top priority for 84% of European decision-makers. Storing data in EU data centers is no longer enough. If the provider is U.S.-based, it remains subject to the CLOUD Act, which allows U.S. authorities to demand access to data regardless of its physical location. This creates a direct conflict with GDPR, which carries fines of up to 4% of global turnover for non-compliance.
A truly sovereign cloud must be both owned and operated by an EU entity, exclusively within certified European data centers. This ensures your data is governed solely by EU law, eliminating exposure to foreign statutes. Impossible Cloud provides this legal certainty through country-level geofencing, guaranteeing data residency. This approach aligns with the core principles of GDPR, which mandates that data transfers outside the EEA meet strict conditions.
This commitment to EU-centric governance provides the legal certainty required for regulated industries like finance and healthcare. It transforms compliance from a complex challenge into a built-in advantage, as detailed in our guide to cost-efficient cloud archiving.
Maintain Full Application Compatibility with the S3 API
Migrating to a new storage platform often introduces risk and requires costly code rewrites. A key driver for switching providers is performance parity and ease of integration. An S3-compatible object storage solution ensures that your existing applications, scripts, and backup tools continue to work without modification. This protects years of investment in your current software ecosystem.
True compatibility goes beyond basic read/write operations. It must include advanced S3 features to keep your workflows intact. Here are some essential capabilities:
Object Lock / Immutability: Provides robust ransomware protection and ensures data cannot be altered or deleted for a defined period.
Versioning: Protects against accidental deletions or overwrites by keeping multiple versions of an object.
Lifecycle Management: Automates data transition and expiration policies without manual intervention.
Event Notifications: Triggers automated workflows in other applications when changes occur in your storage buckets.
Full S3 API support minimizes migration friction to less than a day for most applications. By simply changing the endpoint and credentials in your existing tools, like Veeam or NovaBackup, you can switch to a more cost-effective S3 storage solution without disrupting operations. This seamless transition is critical for maintaining business continuity.
Simplify Operations with an 'Always-Hot' Storage Architecture
Complex storage tiering models, which shuffle data between hot, cool, and archive layers, introduce operational fragility. These systems often lead to restore delays of several hours, API timeouts, and unexpected retrieval fees. An 'Always-Hot' architecture eliminates this complexity entirely. All data is immediately accessible at predictable, low latencies, regardless of when it was stored.
This model offers several distinct advantages for enterprise IT and MSPs:
No Restore Delays: Data is always available in milliseconds, which is critical for disaster recovery scenarios where every second counts.
Predictable Performance: Consistent read/write speeds support mixed workloads, from millions of small files to large-scale analytics queries.
Simplified Management: Eliminates the need to create and manage brittle lifecycle policies, reducing administrative overhead by up to 40%.
No Hidden Fees: There are no charges for data retrieval or tier-restore operations, reinforcing the transparent pricing model.
This 'Always-Hot' approach ensures that third-party backup and archive tools remain stable and performant. It avoids the API errors and timeouts common with tiered systems when urgent restores are initiated. This architectural choice directly supports a more resilient and auditable data management strategy.
Achieve Compliance with the EU Data Act and NIS-2 Directive
Forthcoming EU regulations in 2025 will reshape the digital landscape, and your storage provider must be ready. The EU Data Act, applicable from September 12, 2025, is designed to prevent vendor lock-in by mandating data portability. It requires cloud providers to facilitate easy switching, a principle already built into Impossible Cloud’s open-standards approach. Our model with no egress fees or minimum storage durations directly supports this right to migrate.
Simultaneously, the NIS-2 Directive classifies cloud storage providers as essential services, subjecting them to stricter cybersecurity requirements. This includes continuous security processes, supply-chain assurance, and robust incident reporting. Our platform is sovereign by design, with security baked into operations, not added as an afterthought. We provide features like multi-layer encryption, immutable storage, and granular IAM controls to help you meet these heightened obligations. You can explore more about S3 storage alternatives that prioritize compliance.
Choosing a provider already aligned with these future regulations gives your organization a competitive advantage. It ensures your infrastructure is prepared for the next wave of EU digital governance without requiring a disruptive last-minute migration.
Empower Channel Partners with Predictable Margins and Management
For MSPs, resellers, and system integrators, profitability depends on predictable costs. An affordable S3 object storage without egress fees is predictable by design. This economic stability allows partners to build and price Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) and archiving solutions with defensible, stable margins. There are no surprise API or data transfer costs to erode profits at the end of the month.
Beyond pricing, a partner-ready platform must simplify operations and accelerate onboarding. Our partner console is built for this purpose. It delivers key features for efficient service management:
Multi-Tenant Management: Securely manage multiple client accounts from a single interface with role-based access control (RBAC).
Automation via API/CLI: Integrate storage management into your existing automation and reporting tools.
Fast Onboarding: Get new clients set up and protected in minutes, not days.
Expanded Access: New distribution agreements with api in Germany and Northamber plc in the UK provide local support for our channel partners.
This combination of a predictable cost model and a robust partner platform makes it easier to deliver value. It allows MSPs to focus on service quality instead of worrying about fluctuating infrastructure costs, a key theme in our discussions on transparent cloud pricing.
Take Practical Steps Toward a Sovereign and Affordable Storage Strategy
More Links
Wikipedia offers a detailed explanation of object storage in its German-language article.
FAQ
Why are egress fees a problem for businesses?
Egress fees create unpredictable operational costs, making budget forecasting difficult. They penalize businesses for accessing their own data, which discourages essential activities like disaster recovery testing, data migration, and analytics. This leads to vendor lock-in and can inflate cloud storage bills by over 15%.
What does 'digital sovereignty' mean for my data?
Digital sovereignty means your data is stored and governed exclusively under the laws of your chosen jurisdiction. For European businesses, this means using a 100% EU-owned and operated provider with data centers in Europe. This ensures your data is protected by GDPR and is not subject to foreign government access requests via laws like the U.S. CLOUD Act.
What is 'Always-Hot' object storage?
'Always-Hot' object storage means all your data is immediately accessible with no delays. Unlike tiered storage that moves data to 'cold' or 'archive' layers, this model eliminates retrieval times and extra fees, ensuring predictable performance for all use cases, especially backup and disaster recovery.
How does full S3 compatibility help my business?
Full S3 compatibility allows you to use your existing applications, tools, and scripts without any changes. This protects your technology investments and makes migrating to a new, more affordable provider fast and risk-free. It ensures features like Object Lock, versioning, and lifecycle management work as expected.
How does your partner program help MSPs?
Our partner program is designed for predictable profitability. With zero egress and API fees, MSPs can set stable pricing for services like BaaS and archiving. We provide a multi-tenant console, automation tools (API/CLI), and fast onboarding to simplify client management and improve operational efficiency.
How does Impossible Cloud align with the EU Data Act?
The EU Data Act, effective September 2025, promotes data portability and prevents vendor lock-in. Our model inherently supports this with no egress fees, no minimum storage durations, and adherence to open standards (S3 API). We make it technically and financially simple for customers to move their data at any time.
