Backup Solutions
Disaster Recovery
Impossible Cloud UK data backup
Secure UK Data Backup with a Sovereign Cloud Strategy for 2025
UK businesses face a complex web of data regulations and unpredictable cloud costs that stifle innovation. A sovereign Impossible Cloud UK data backup strategy eliminates these risks, offering a clear path to compliance and cost control.
Key Takeawys
Achieve UK data sovereignty and GDPR compliance by using a 100% European cloud provider, avoiding exposure to foreign laws like the US CLOUD Act.
Eliminate unpredictable cloud costs with a transparent pricing model that has zero egress fees and no API call charges, protecting IT budgets.
Prepare for upcoming regulations like the EU Data Act and NIS-2 with built-in features for data portability, immutable storage, and robust security.
For UK IT leaders, ensuring data sovereignty and managing backup costs has become a critical challenge. Post-Brexit regulations create a dual framework with UK GDPR, while the risk of exposure to foreign laws like the US CLOUD Act remains a top concern for over 70% of businesses. Furthermore, unpredictable egress fees from hyperscale providers are forcing 68% of companies to cut other essential IT budgets. This article outlines a strategic approach to Impossible Cloud UK data backup, focusing on a sovereign, compliant, and cost-predictable solution that prepares your organisation for regulations like the EU Data Act and NIS-2.
Establish Digital Sovereignty for UK Data
Data sovereignty is the principle that data is subject to the laws of the country where it is stored. For UK businesses, navigating the post-Brexit landscape requires adherence to UK GDPR, which mirrors many EU regulations but stands separate. The EU's adequacy decision, which permits data flow, is only guaranteed until June 27, 2025, creating significant uncertainty.
Storing data with non-EU providers introduces major compliance risks. The US CLOUD Act, for example, allows U.S. authorities to demand data from American tech companies, regardless of where that data is stored globally. Choosing a 100% European provider with geofenced storage in certified EU data centres is the only guaranteed way to avoid this exposure. Our data privacy solutions are sovereign by design.
This EU-centric approach provides the legal certainty UK businesses need for their cloud backup strategies. By keeping all data under EU governance, you ensure full compliance with the highest data protection standards, insulating your operations from foreign jurisdiction and future regulatory shifts.
Eliminate Unpredictable Costs with a Zero-Egress Model
Unpredictable costs are a primary pain point for over 67% of IT decision-makers using cloud services. Data egress fees, the charges for moving data out of a cloud, are a major contributor, with some customers facing fees of more than 10% of their annual cloud spend just to switch providers. This creates a powerful vendor lock-in effect that stifles flexibility.
Impossible Cloud is predictable by design, with a transparent model that includes zero egress fees and no API call costs. This approach aligns with the spirit of the EU Data Act, which will ban data transfer charges by 2027 to promote fair competition. Our model can reduce total cloud storage costs for a typical enterprise by over 50% compared to hyperscalers.
We also utilize an “Always-Hot” object storage architecture. This simple, high-performance model eliminates the complex and fragile tiering policies that often lead to unexpected restore fees and API timeouts. All data is immediately accessible, ensuring your disaster recovery plans execute without delay or surprise charges of up to 3x the storage cost.
Build a Resilient Defence Against Ransomware
Ransomware attacks continue to grow in sophistication, with recovery costs averaging over £1.5 million per incident. A robust, multi-layered defence is essential for any modern Impossible Cloud UK data backup strategy. Our platform provides the tools to build this resilience directly into your storage architecture.
The core of this defence is Immutable Storage with S3 Object Lock. This feature ensures that once data is written, it cannot be altered or deleted for a specified period, making your backups invulnerable to ransomware encryption. Key features include:
Governance Mode: Allows users with special permissions to alter retention settings, providing flexibility for trusted administrators.
Compliance Mode: The highest level of protection, where no user, including the root account, can change the retention policy until it expires.
Legal Hold: Indefinitely protects objects from modification or deletion, independent of retention periods, for compliance or legal reasons.
MFA and RBAC: Granular Identity and Access Management (IAM) with multi-factor authentication and role-based access control ensures only authorized personnel can manage policies.
These features, combined with end-to-end encryption, provide an audit-ready framework for data protection. This prepares your organisation for the stringent security measures required by modern regulations and protects your most critical asset—your data. Learn more about our managed backup services.
Ensure Seamless Integration and Future-Proof Portability
Migrating to a new cloud platform should not require a complete overhaul of your existing IT ecosystem. We guarantee 100% S3 API compatibility, ensuring your current applications, scripts, and backup tools work without modification. This protects your past investments and reduces migration risk to near zero.
Our platform offers out-of-the-box integrations with leading backup software providers, including a deep collaboration with NovaBackup. This partnership delivers a seamless and compliant backup solution tailored for MSPs and enterprises. Over 95% of standard S3-based tools connect to our platform in under 15 minutes.
Furthermore, our commitment to open standards directly addresses the EU Data Act's mandate for data portability. The regulation, effective from September 2025, requires providers to remove barriers to switching. Our zero-egress fee model and S3 compatibility provide a proven exit path, ensuring you always retain control and negotiation power over your S3-compatible disaster recovery solutions.
Prepare for NIS-2 and Evolving UK Cyber Regulations
The regulatory landscape for cybersecurity is intensifying. The EU's NIS-2 Directive expands security and incident reporting obligations for critical sectors, including managed service providers (MSPs). While not directly applicable in the UK, the government is aligning its own NIS regulations, bringing UK MSPs and data centres into scope with similar stringent requirements.
Our platform is built to meet these heightened standards. We provide the necessary tools for continuous security processes, supply-chain assurance, and robust incident reporting. Key capabilities include:
Comprehensive Logging: Detailed logs of all API calls and account activity to support security audits and incident analysis.
Immutable Storage: Helps meet data integrity requirements under NIS-2 for critical backups.
Geofenced EU Operations: Ensures the entire service chain remains under a single, compliant legal framework.
Granular IAM Policies: Enforce least-privilege access to meet strict internal governance and external regulatory demands.
By partnering with Impossible Cloud, UK MSPs and enterprises can build a service that is compliant by design. This proactive stance on security not only meets upcoming regulations but also becomes a competitive advantage for businesses in Glasgow and across the UK.
Empower UK Channel Partners with a Predictable Margin Engine
For UK MSPs, resellers, and system integrators, profitability depends on predictable margins. Hyperscaler pricing models, with their variable egress and API fees, make it nearly impossible to build defensible margins for Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) offerings. Our partner-first model was designed to solve this exact problem.
The Impossible Cloud value proposition for the channel is built on predictability. With zero egress fees, no API charges, and no minimum storage durations, partners can set fixed prices for their services with confidence, protecting margins by over 25% on average. Our multi-tenant partner console simplifies management with robust RBAC/MFA and detailed reporting.
We are committed to expanding local access for our UK partners. Through our distribution agreement with Northamber plc, one of the UK's leading distributors, resellers have a streamlined procurement and support channel. This partnership, alongside our expanding European presence, ensures UK partners have the resources they need for fast onboarding and scalable growth. This is how we deliver a truly partner-ready Veeam storage solution.
More Links
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) provides information for the public on cloud computing, covering data protection and privacy aspects.
The UK government publishes the Data Protection Act 2018, the legislation governing data protection in the United Kingdom.
EUR-Lex provides access to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a key European Union regulation on data protection and privacy.
The European Commission outlines its strategy to create a single market for data as part of its European data strategy.
The UK government details its roadmap for digital and data transformation from 2022 to 2025.
KPMG offers insights and analysis on the cloud computing market and trends in its Cloud Monitor 2022 report.
FAQ
How does Impossible Cloud ensure my UK data backup remains in Europe?
Impossible Cloud operates exclusively in certified European data centres. We use country-level geofencing to ensure your data is stored and processed only within your chosen EU region, guaranteeing it remains under EU law and is protected from foreign legal jurisdictions.
Can I use my existing backup software with Impossible Cloud?
Yes. We provide full S3 API compatibility, which means virtually all modern backup and recovery tools that work with S3 will work with Impossible Cloud out-of-the-box. This includes leading solutions like Veeam, Rubrik, and our partner NovaBackup.
What makes your pricing model 'predictable'?
Our pricing is based on a simple, transparent rate for storage used. We have no hidden fees: zero charges for data egress (retrieval), zero charges for API calls (puts, gets, lists), and no minimum storage duration. This allows you to forecast your costs with 100% accuracy.
How do you help UK Managed Service Providers (MSPs)?
We provide a partner-ready platform with a multi-tenant console, automation via API/CLI, and predictable pricing that allows MSPs to build profitable BaaS and DRaaS offerings. Our partnership with UK distributor Northamber plc ensures local support and streamlined access for resellers.
Is Impossible Cloud ready for the EU Data Act?
Yes, our platform is designed around the core principles of the EU Data Act. By offering zero egress fees and full S3 API compatibility, we already provide the data portability and freedom from vendor lock-in that the regulation will mandate from September 2025.
How does your 'Always-Hot' architecture benefit my backups?
Our 'Always-Hot' model means all your backup data is immediately accessible for restoration at any time. This eliminates the delays and surprise restore fees associated with tiered storage (hot, cool, archive), simplifying operations and ensuring you meet your Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs).
