Cloud Storage
German Cloud
IONOS cloud pricing
Eliminate Cloud Bill Shock With a Predictable Pricing Model
Complex cloud pricing models often conceal unpredictable costs like egress fees and API call charges, leading to budget overruns. A transparent pricing model eliminates these variables entirely. Discover a sovereign, S3-compatible storage solution designed for cost predictability.
Key Takeawys
Eliminate unpredictable cloud costs by choosing a provider with zero egress fees, no API call charges, and no minimum storage durations.
Ensure digital sovereignty and GDPR compliance by using a European cloud provider operating exclusively in EU data centers, free from CLOUD Act exposure.
Protect your IT investments and avoid vendor lock-in with a fully S3-compatible object storage solution that supports your existing tools and workflows.
A majority of EU IT leaders are prioritizing European cloud solutions to ensure data residency and control. Yet, many feel locked into existing providers by complex pricing and the fear of migration risks. The path to digital sovereignty requires not only performance parity and robust security but also absolute cost transparency. An enterprise-ready EU alternative must eliminate hidden fees like egress charges and API call costs, offering a predictable economic model that protects budgets and supports growth.
Deconstruct Complex Cloud Pricing Models
Many cloud storage pricing structures appear simple at first but contain variables that create significant budget challenges. Egress fees, the charges for moving data out of the cloud, can account for up to 15% of a total cloud bill. These costs are notoriously difficult to forecast, with over 60% of IT leaders exceeding their cloud budgets due to such unexpected fees.
Additional charges often include costs for API calls and minimum storage durations, further complicating financial planning. This lack of transparency creates vendor lock-in, where the potential cost of data retrieval makes switching providers financially impractical. A predictable model with zero egress or API fees provides the economic clarity needed for effective budget management. This approach is fundamental to building a resilient and cost-effective cloud storage strategy.
Understanding these hidden costs is the first step toward regaining control of your IT expenditures.
Achieve Digital Sovereignty and Compliance
For European businesses, data control is not just a technical issue; it is a legal necessity. Regulations like GDPR impose strict rules on data residency, limiting data transfers outside the EU unless stringent safeguards are in place. However, the U.S. CLOUD Act allows American authorities to demand access to data held by U.S.-based companies, even if that data resides on European servers, creating a direct legal conflict.
This exposes businesses to compliance risks, as an estimated 74% of European companies rely on American B2B providers. A sovereign-by-design approach eliminates this risk entirely. The following are key elements of a sovereign cloud:
Operation exclusively in certified European data centers to guarantee EU data residency.
Country-level geofencing to keep data within predefined national borders.
Strictly EU-centric governance, ensuring no exposure to extra-territorial laws like the CLOUD Act.
Full alignment with GDPR and other European data protection frameworks.
Choosing a European provider is a direct strategy to mitigate regulatory exposure and ensure true data security. This foundation of sovereignty prepares your organization for evolving compliance landscapes.
Simplify Operations with an Always-Hot Architecture
Complex storage tiering, which moves data between hot, cool, and archive layers, often introduces operational friction and hidden costs. Restoring data from archival tiers can lead to unexpected delays and retrieval fees, disrupting backup and disaster recovery operations. An "Always-Hot" object storage model simplifies this process by ensuring all data is immediately accessible with consistent, predictable latency.
This architecture eliminates single points of failure and supports mixed workloads, from millions of small files to large-scale archives, without performance degradation. An always-hot model reduces operational complexity and strengthens your recovery posture by removing restore surprises. It ensures that third-party tools, especially for backup and analytics, operate with stable performance. This approach provides a more resilient and efficient cloud performance profile.
By removing tiering, you also remove a significant source of unpredictable costs and operational brittleness.
Protect Investments with Full S3 Compatibility
Vendor lock-in extends beyond pricing to technical dependencies. Full S3-API compatibility is essential for maintaining operational freedom and protecting past investments. It ensures that existing applications, scripts, and backup tools continue to function without code rewrites, minimizing migration risk and cost.
True compatibility goes beyond basic object operations. It must include advanced capabilities to keep your workflows intact. Key features to look for include:
Support for versioning and lifecycle management policies.
Seamless integration with existing SDKs and CLIs.
Functionality for event notifications and object tagging.
Consistent performance for both standard and advanced API calls.
This level of compatibility makes switching to a new provider a simple change of endpoints, not a complex engineering project. It preserves your team's expertise and allows you to select the best cloud storage alternative based on value and sovereignty, not technical constraints.
This compatibility ensures your infrastructure remains agile and adaptable to future needs.
Strengthen Ransomware Defense with Immutable Storage
Ransomware attacks increasingly target backup systems to prevent recovery, making immutable storage a critical defense layer. Immutable storage, using features like Object Lock, ensures that once data is written, it cannot be altered or deleted for a specified period. This creates a tamper-proof copy of your data that is impervious to ransomware encryption.
In the event of an attack, you can restore operations from these unaltered backups, minimizing downtime and avoiding ransom payments. Immutable backups provide a reliable recovery path, turning a potential disaster into a manageable incident. This capability is also essential for meeting compliance requirements under regulations like GDPR, which mandate data integrity. Choosing a provider that offers immutable storage by default strengthens your overall data protection strategy.
This proactive security measure is a non-negotiable element of modern data resilience.
Prepare for the EU Data Act and NIS-2
Upcoming EU regulations will further reshape the cloud landscape. The EU Data Act, fully applicable from September 2025, mandates data portability and interoperability to prevent vendor lock-in. It requires providers to facilitate seamless switching, including the transfer of metadata and access information, reinforcing the need for open, S3-compatible standards.
Simultaneously, the NIS-2 Directive imposes stricter cybersecurity obligations on providers of essential services, emphasizing supply-chain security and continuous risk management. Cloud providers must demonstrate robust security processes, from vulnerability management to incident reporting, as part of their core operations. A provider built on principles of sovereignty and transparency is already aligned with the spirit of these regulations. This proactive stance on compliance offers a distinct competitive advantage and ensures long-term business scalability.
Choosing a future-ready provider ensures your data strategy remains compliant and competitive.
Enable Channel Partners with a Predictable Margin Model
More Links
Bitkom offers a press conference presentation for the Cloud Report 2025, providing data and analysis on cloud adoption and trends in Germany.
Bitkom presents charts from the Cloud Report 2024, detailing data and analysis on cloud adoption and trends in Germany.
KPMG provides its Cloud Monitor 2023, offering an analysis of the cloud market and adoption trends with a focus on business implications.
KPMG shares an article on cloud cost optimization, aiming to bring clarity to cloud cost management strategies.
PwC discusses transparent cost savings through demand-oriented cloud resources, focusing on optimizing cloud spending.
German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) provides a press release with statistical data on cloud usage in Germany.
DIW Berlin (German Institute for Economic Research) presents a weekly report on how cloud solutions can potentially increase productivity.
Acatech offers a publication on digital sovereignty, outlining its current status and key areas for action, including control and autonomy in cloud computing.
FAQ
What are the main disadvantages of complex cloud pricing models?
The main disadvantages are unpredictability and vendor lock-in. Hidden costs like egress fees and API call charges make it difficult to budget accurately, often leading to bill shock. The high cost of retrieving data can make it financially prohibitive to switch to a better or more cost-effective provider.
How does Impossible Cloud ensure data sovereignty?
Impossible Cloud ensures data sovereignty by operating exclusively in certified European data centers. We offer country-level geofencing to keep your data within specific EU regions, and our EU-centric governance model ensures your data is never subject to extra-territorial legislation like the U.S. CLOUD Act.
Is it difficult to migrate to Impossible Cloud?
No, migration is straightforward. Impossible Cloud is fully S3-compatible, meaning your existing applications, scripts, and tools that use the S3 API will work without modification. You can migrate by simply updating the endpoint and credentials in your current configuration.
What is an 'Always-Hot' storage architecture?
An 'Always-Hot' architecture means all your data is stored in a single, high-performance tier and is always immediately accessible. This eliminates the complexity, delays, and surprise restore fees associated with tiered storage models (hot, cool, archive), simplifying operations and ensuring predictable performance for backups and restores.
How does Impossible Cloud support MSPs and channel partners?
We support partners with a 'predictable by design' pricing model (zero egress/API fees) for stable margins. Our platform includes a multi-tenant console with RBAC/MFA, automation via API/CLI, and reporting tools. We also partner with local distributors like api in Germany and Northamber plc in the UK for easy access and onboarding.
Is Impossible Cloud compliant with new regulations like the EU Data Act?
Yes, our platform is designed for regulatory readiness. Our commitment to S3 compatibility and data portability aligns directly with the EU Data Act's goal of preventing vendor lock-in. Our robust security measures and EU-only operations support compliance with NIS-2's stringent cybersecurity requirements.
