Cloud Storage
Hot Storage
always-hot object storage UK
Always-Hot Object Storage in the UK: Achieve 100% Data Accessibility and Sovereignty
Complex storage tiers create hidden costs and risky restore delays. An always-hot object storage model offers UK businesses a simpler, more resilient path to data sovereignty and ransomware protection.
Key Takeaways
Always-hot object storage eliminates complex and risky data tiers, ensuring all data is instantly accessible without restore delays or hidden fees.
Storing data in geofenced, EU-only data centers provides UK businesses with a direct path to GDPR compliance and avoids CLOUD Act exposure.
A predictable pricing model with zero egress fees, no API call costs, and no minimum durations allows UK MSPs to build profitable services with stable margins.
For UK IT leaders, managing data across complex storage tiers introduces operational friction, unpredictable costs, and compliance headaches. The constant shuffle between hot, cool, and archive layers often leads to restore delays of several hours, surprise egress fees, and application timeouts. Impossible Cloud provides a modern alternative: an always-hot object storage UK solution. Sovereign by design and fully S3-compatible, it ensures all data is instantly accessible from ISO 27001 certified European data centers, eliminating tiering complexity while delivering the strict data residency and predictable economics UK businesses now require.
Eliminate Tiering Complexity and Hidden Operational Costs
Traditional cloud storage models force a trade-off between cost and access, pushing data into complex tiers that save pennies but introduce risk. This approach creates fragile lifecycle policies that can cause restore failures or API timeouts when access patterns change, impacting recovery operations by 100%. An always-hot model simplifies operations entirely.
With an always-hot architecture, all data is immediately accessible, removing the operational burden of managing brittle tiering policies. This model avoids the restore delays and hidden fees that impact 1 in 3 cloud users. It keeps third-party tools stable and strengthens your auditability for compliance.
This simplified approach provides superior storage performance and predictability, which is essential for modern workloads. It ensures that your backup, disaster recovery, and analytics pipelines run without the friction of data retrieval delays, setting a new standard for operational efficiency.
Achieve 100% Data Accessibility with a Sovereign-Ready Architecture
An always-hot object storage UK platform means every object is ready for immediate read/write operations, delivering consistent, low-latency performance. This design eliminates single points of failure and is foundational to true data availability and resilience. For UK businesses, this translates to stronger ransomware protection and faster recovery times.
Our architecture is built for consistency and scale, supporting millions of small files or large archival workloads with equal efficiency. The benefits of this model are clear:
Reduced Operational Complexity: No need to create or manage complex lifecycle rules to move data between tiers.
Predictable Restore Times: All data is restored at the same high speed, eliminating delays of 4-12 hours common with archived tiers.
Stable Application Performance: Third-party tools and applications that connect via the S3 API never time out waiting for data.
No Surprise Fees: With zero egress fees or charges for API calls, costs are completely transparent and predictable.
This model is sovereign by design, operated exclusively in certified European data centres with country-level geofencing. This ensures your data stays within the UK or EU, under your control, aligning with modern data governance requirements. This architectural choice directly supports the next layer of security: robust compliance and data sovereignty.
Secure UK Data Sovereignty and Exceed Compliance Mandates
For UK businesses, data sovereignty is a strategic necessity, with 84% of European organisations planning to use sovereign cloud solutions. Storing data within EU-controlled data centres provides a direct path to GDPR compliance and avoids exposure to foreign laws like the CLOUD Act. Our platform offers geofenced storage to guarantee UK data residency.
Impossible Cloud strengthens your compliance posture for regulations governing the UK and EU. This is particularly relevant for businesses that must adhere to both UK GDPR and EU GDPR standards. Our commitment to the UK market is reinforced by our partnership with our first UK distributor, Northamber plc.
This focus on sovereignty provides the legal certainty required for regulated industries like finance and healthcare. By ensuring data remains under EU control, you build a foundation of trust and regulatory readiness, which is critical for navigating evolving cross-border data transfer rules.
Protect Investments with Full S3 API Compatibility
True S3 compatibility goes beyond basic object operations; it protects your existing investments in tools, scripts, and talent. Our platform supports advanced capabilities like versioning, lifecycle management, and event notifications across the API, CLI, and SDK. This ensures your data management pipelines continue to run with zero code rewrites.
A seamless migration is critical for maintaining business continuity. Our full S3 compatibility simplifies the process:
Update Endpoints: Change the S3 endpoint in your existing backup tools or applications to the Impossible Cloud URL.
Transfer Credentials: Input your new access keys and secret keys into your application's configuration.
Replicate Policies: Recreate bucket policies, IAM roles, and lifecycle rules using our intuitive console or API.
Test and Verify: Run test backups and, most importantly, test restores to confirm everything works as expected before going live.
This 1-to-1 compatibility minimises migration risk and ensures your teams can keep using the tools they already know. It makes switching to a sovereign cloud backup solution a practical, low-friction process.
Future-Proof Operations for the EU Data Act and NIS-2
For UK businesses serving EU customers, upcoming regulations like the EU Data Act and NIS-2 Directive introduce new compliance layers. The EU Data Act, fully applicable from September 2025, mandates data portability and interoperability to prevent vendor lock-in. Our platform is built on open standards, ensuring you can always export your data, including metadata and versions.
The NIS-2 Directive requires stricter cybersecurity measures, including supply chain security and incident reporting within 24 hours. Our use of Immutable Storage with Object Lock provides a powerful defence against ransomware and helps meet these stringent retention requirements. We provide the tools for continuous security, from multi-layer encryption to granular IAM controls.
By aligning with these forward-looking regulations, your business gains a competitive advantage. Proactive compliance with frameworks like the NIS-2 directive demonstrates a mature security posture to partners and customers across Europe.
Enable MSP Growth with a Partner-Ready Platform
We built our platform to help UK Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and resellers deliver profitable, compliant data protection services. The economic model is predictable by design, with zero egress fees, no API call costs, and no minimum storage durations. This allows MSPs to build BaaS and archiving services with stable, defensible margins of over 40%.
Our partner console is designed for efficiency and scale. It includes essential features for MSPs:
Multi-Tenant Management: Securely manage multiple end-customer accounts from a single interface with role-based access control (RBAC).
Automation via API/CLI: Automate provisioning, reporting, and management tasks to reduce operational overhead.
Integrated Reporting: Monitor usage and performance across all tenants for streamlined billing and capacity planning.
Fast Onboarding: Get new customers set up in minutes with our S3-compatible integrations and simple console UX.
With distribution in the UK through Northamber plc, local access and support for resellers and MSPs is stronger than ever. This partner-first approach ensures you have the tools and economic model to succeed in a competitive market.
More Links
EUR-Lex provides the official text of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) offers guidance for the public on cloud computing practices.
Organisations can find specific cloud computing guidance from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
legislation.gov.uk details the UK legislation pertaining to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
A PDF version of the official text of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is also available via EUR-Lex.
FAQ
What makes your object storage 'sovereign by design'?
Our object storage is 'sovereign by design' because we are a European company that operates exclusively in certified European data centers. We offer country-level geofencing to ensure data stays within a chosen region (like the UK or Germany), providing legal certainty and full compliance with GDPR, while preventing exposure to non-EU laws.
How does your pricing model work?
Our pricing is transparent and predictable. You pay for the storage you use without any hidden costs. We have zero egress fees, zero charges for API calls (reads, writes, lists), and no minimum storage duration policies, which eliminates the financial penalties common with other cloud providers.
What is Immutable Storage / Object Lock?
Immutable Storage, or Object Lock, is a feature that makes data unchangeable and undeletable for a specified period. It provides a powerful defence against ransomware, as malicious actors cannot encrypt or delete locked files. It also helps meet strict data retention requirements for compliance audits.
Can I use my existing backup software with Impossible Cloud?
Yes. Our platform offers full S3 API compatibility, ensuring out-of-the-box integration with leading backup and recovery software like Veeam, Commvault, and our partner NovaBackup. You can connect your existing tools by simply changing the S3 storage endpoint.
What kind of security measures are in place?
We provide multi-layer security. This includes encryption for data in-transit (TLS) and at-rest, Identity and Access Management (IAM) with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), Immutable Storage (Object Lock) for ransomware protection, and operation within ISO 27001 certified data centers.
How do you support Managed Service Providers (MSPs) in the UK?
We offer a partner-ready platform with a multi-tenant console, full automation via API/CLI, and integrated reporting. Our predictable pricing model with no egress or API fees allows MSPs to build profitable Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) and archiving solutions. In the UK, we partner with the distributor Northamber plc to provide local support.
