European Cloud
ISO 27001
Cyber Essentials storage UK
Achieve Cyber Essentials Compliance With Sovereign UK Data Storage
UK businesses seeking Cyber Essentials certification face a maze of data storage options, each with hidden risks and costs. True compliance requires more than a checkbox; it demands a foundation of data sovereignty and resilience. Discover a storage strategy that secures your data within EU legal frameworks, protecting you from ransomware and unpredictable bills.
Key Takeaways
Achieving Cyber Essentials in the UK requires a storage foundation built on data sovereignty to mitigate risks from foreign laws like the US CLOUD Act.
Immutable backups with Object Lock are a critical defense against ransomware, ensuring a clean, unalterable copy of data is always available for recovery.
A predictable cost model with no egress or API fees allows UK businesses and MSPs to control budgets and build profitable services without fear of surprise charges.
For UK organisations, achieving Cyber Essentials certification is a critical step in demonstrating commitment to cybersecurity. The scheme's five technical controls provide a baseline for defense against common threats. However, the foundation of this security—where and how your data is stored—is often overlooked. Navigating the complexities of data sovereignty, ransomware resilience, and spiraling cloud costs presents a significant challenge for IT leaders. This article outlines a strategic approach to Cyber Essentials storage in the UK, focusing on a sovereign, predictable, and enterprise-ready object storage solution designed to meet today's compliance demands and tomorrow's regulatory landscape.
Align Storage Strategy with Cyber Essentials Controls
The Cyber Essentials scheme mandates five key technical controls to protect UK businesses from the vast majority of common cyber attacks. While data backup is a strong recommendation rather than a mandatory control, a secure storage foundation is essential for implementing 'User Access Control' effectively. Proper storage architecture ensures that only authorized users can access specific data sets, a core tenet of the certification. A 100% S3-compatible API allows for seamless integration with existing access management tools. Our platform provides granular Identity and Access Management (IAM) with MFA and RBAC, directly supporting this requirement. This approach simplifies the path to certification, which has been awarded over 215,000 times to UK organisations. A robust storage strategy is the bedrock of a successful cybersecurity posture.
This focus on controlled access and data integrity sets the stage for addressing the critical issue of data location and legal jurisdiction.
Meet Data Sovereignty Demands in the UK Market
For UK businesses, data sovereignty has become a strategic priority, with 61% of IT leaders expressing its importance. The US CLOUD Act allows US authorities to access data held by US-based companies, regardless of where the servers are physically located. This creates a significant compliance risk for UK firms handling sensitive information. Choosing a 100% European-owned and operated cloud avoids this exposure entirely. Impossible Cloud offers geofenced storage within certified European data centres, ensuring your data remains under EU legal protection. This commitment to data sovereignty provides the legal certainty that over 45% of UK organisations exploring cloud repatriation are seeking. This jurisdictional clarity is fundamental to building a trusted data infrastructure.
With data securely located, the next step is to ensure it is protected from modification or deletion by malicious actors.
Build Ransomware Resilience with Immutable Backups
Ransomware attacks remain a primary threat, with 81.4% of UK organisations experiencing at least one cyber attack in recent years. A successful attack can cost a business over £1M on average. Immutable backups, which cannot be altered or deleted for a set period, are a critical defense. Impossible Cloud’s Immutable Storage with Object Lock creates a tamper-proof copy of your data. This ensures a clean recovery point is always available, negating the attacker's leverage and making ransom payments unnecessary. This approach aligns with the 3-2-1 backup rule, where one copy of the data is stored off-site and is immutable. Implementing this feature is a non-negotiable part of modern ransomware protection.
Beyond technical resilience, achieving economic predictability is crucial for long-term strategic planning, especially for our partners.
Enable Partner Success with Predictable Storage Economics
For Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and resellers, unpredictable costs erode margins and complicate client billing. Research shows 94% of IT leaders struggle to optimise cloud costs, with nearly half citing unexpected fluctuations as a major issue. We address this directly with a transparent pricing model. There are zero egress fees, no API call costs, and no minimum storage durations. This model provides predictable margins for partners offering Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) and archiving solutions. Our multi-tenant partner console, complete with RBAC and MFA, simplifies management across hundreds of clients. Through our UK distributor, Northamber plc, we provide local access and support to help our partners grow their business confidently. This partner-ready approach ensures our compliance solutions are also profitable.
This predictable model also provides a stable foundation for meeting evolving and future regulatory requirements.
Future-Proof Your Strategy for NIS-2 and the EU Data Act
Compliance is not static, and UK businesses serving EU clients must prepare for new regulations. The NIS-2 Directive, which came into force in 2023, imposes stricter cybersecurity and supply chain security obligations on a wider range of sectors. Non-compliance can lead to fines of up to 2% of global turnover. Similarly, the EU Data Act, effective from September 2025, mandates data portability and interoperability to prevent vendor lock-in. Our platform is sovereign by design, aligning with these new European standards. By offering an EU-centric solution with full data portability, we help UK firms meet these extra-territorial requirements and turn regulatory readiness into a competitive advantage. This proactive stance on GDPR-compliant storage is vital.
Underpinning all these benefits is an architecture built for consistent, enterprise-grade performance.
Leverage an Enterprise-Ready, 'Always-Hot' Architecture
Meeting compliance standards requires an architecture that guarantees performance and availability. Many cloud providers use complex tiering, which can cause restore delays of several hours and introduce hidden fees. Our 'Always-Hot' object storage model ensures all data is immediately accessible with no restore delays. This eliminates the operational complexity and API timeouts common with tiered systems. Our architecture is built for consistency and scale, with multi-AZ replication to prevent single points of failure. We offer full S3 API compatibility, protecting your investment in existing tools and scripts. This focus on object storage security ensures your operations remain stable and predictable under any workload.
Here are the core components of our enterprise-ready platform:
Full S3 Compatibility: Protects investments by ensuring existing applications, scripts, and pipelines work without modification.
Always-Hot Access: All data is available for immediate retrieval, eliminating restore delays and egress fees from cold tiers.
Multi-Layer Encryption: Data is secured both in transit and at rest, with key management remaining under EU control.
Robust IAM Controls: Granular, role-driven policies with MFA and support for external IdPs via SAML/OIDC.
This robust technical foundation provides the reliability needed to build a secure and compliant business.
Practical Steps for UK MSPs and IT Leaders
More Links
GOV.UK provides an overview of the Cyber Essentials scheme, detailing its purpose and benefits.
Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) offers guidance and resources on the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for organisations.
GOV.UK provides general information on data protection in the UK, including relevant legislation and guidance.
GOV.UK presents the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025, offering statistics on cyber security incidents affecting UK businesses and charities.
FAQ
Is your storage solution compliant with UK GDPR?
Yes. Our storage is operated exclusively in certified European data centres, making it fully compliant with GDPR. By keeping data geofenced within the EU, we help UK businesses meet their obligations under both UK and EU GDPR when processing data of EU citizens.
What does 'S3-compatible' mean for my existing tools?
Full S3 compatibility means your existing applications, backup software, and scripts that use the S3 API will work with our storage without needing code rewrites. You simply change the endpoint, and your tools continue to function as expected, protecting your prior investments.
How do you eliminate egress fees?
Our pricing model is simple and transparent. We do not charge for data retrieval (egress) or for API requests. You pay only for the storage you consume, which makes your costs predictable and easy to manage, unlike hyperscale providers who often have complex billing with hidden fees.
What is 'Always-Hot' storage?
Unlike tiered storage models that move infrequently accessed data to slower, cheaper 'cold' tiers, our 'Always-Hot' architecture keeps all your data immediately accessible. This eliminates restore delays and unexpected retrieval fees, simplifying operations and ensuring your data is always ready when you need it.
How does your partner program support UK MSPs?
We provide UK MSPs with a multi-tenant management console, automation via API/CLI, and a predictable pricing model with zero egress fees for stable margins. Through our UK distributor, Northamber plc, we offer local support and fast onboarding to help you deliver sovereign and resilient backup and archive services.
Can I migrate my data from another cloud provider easily?
Yes. Since our platform is fully S3-compatible, you can use any standard S3 data migration tool to move your data. The process typically involves updating the endpoint in your tool, replicating your bucket policies, and initiating the transfer.
