More than just storage: independent, secure, resilient
Empalis Sovereign Vault (ESV)
Sovereign S3 storage "always hot", hosted in Germany.
Empalis Sovereign Vault, a key component of our Cyber Resilience portfolio, complements existing backup infrastructures with a sovereign, secure airgap component featuring a clear separation of responsibilities.
Why Resilience in Business Depends on Recoverability
Given the high number of cyberattacks worldwide, every company understands today: The foundation for corporate resilience is the ability to recover in a crisis. Whether it's an outage, error, or cyberattack, if prevention and high availability fail, only the recovery of data, applications, and business processes will help.
Empalis Sovereign Vault – Sovereign S3 Storage with Media Break
We don't offer object storage in the cloud, but rather a customized, resilient offsite solution.
As a complementary component in your security architecture, Empalis Sovereign Vault significantly enhances the security of your hybrid or cloud environment. Certified, state-of-the-art.
To ensure this optimally, the 3-2-1-1-0 rule must be consistently implemented.
The extended 3-2-1 rule
- 3 copies
- 2 sites/media
- 1 unalterable copy (minimum)
- 1 offsite copy
- 0 errors
Only in this way do companies have a real chance that, if data is compromised, usable and intact datasets will still be available for near‑immediate recovery.
Empalis Sovereign Vault implements the 3‑2‑1‑1‑0 rule by keeping an additional copy in an immutable, off‑site location managed by Empalis - to which none of your employees have access.
This significantly reduces the risk of errors, thanks to the expertise, monitoring, and operations behind our service.
Cost transparency, simplicity, and predictability
Empalis Sovereign Vault offers transparent, simple, and predictable costs. There's only one key metric to calculate: How many terabytes of storage do you need?
Pricing Options
Starting at 1 TB for €12/month. Minimum contract term: 1 month. One-time setup fee: €400.
The setup fee is waived for 25 TB/month and above with a minimum contract term of 1 year.
For 50 TB/month and above with a 1-year contract, the price per TB drops to €11.50, and for 3 years to €11 with upfront payment.
Do you have more than 100 TB? Please feel free to contact us.
Advantages and features
100% data sovereignty made in Germany
Developed, hosted, and operated in Germany. GDPR compliant and ISO 27001 certified.
Object Lock
Immutable backups; data cannot be overwritten, manipulated, or deleted.
Separation of Duties
Empalis Sovereign Vault deliberately separates backup, storage, and administration. Our Zero Trust approach means you have no administrative rights to Empalis Sovereign Vault. This prevents data from being deleted or manipulated.
Maximum control
Access to and storage of data is always encrypted. Due to enforced application encryption, third parties cannot view your data. Our IAM policies ensure that access is only granted with authentication via encrypted channels and with minimal privileges
Always up-to-date
Empalis, as a resilience expert, not only implements best practices for your backup workloads, but also monitors compliance and security standards – continuously and adapted to your needs, without interruption and free of charge.
Speed and scalability
Our Empalis Sovereign Vault always keeps all data on the Performance Tier, so that in an emergency over 100 restores can be started simultaneously.
Cyber Incident Response
Were you attacked and your backup infrastructure compromised? – We'll gladly assist you in connecting your Empalis Sovereign Vault to a disaster recovery (DR) location or new hardware.
Want even more security in the event of a cyber incident? – Empalis Service Plus and Viking offerings provide you with our anti-ransomware guarantee.
Costs and planning certainty
Empalis Sovereign Vault storage and service is available at a fixed price. No hidden costs, no minimum data retention period, and no transfer, API, or egress fees. Our offering scales with your needs; additional storage can be ordered flexibly within minutes.
Independence
Empalis Sovereign Vault does not use any providers that might be subject to the US Cloud Act. Therefore, this solution is ideal for customers who need to implement critical infrastructure (KRITIS) or NIS2 compliance and simplifies auditability.
Modern Airgap
Manual offsite backup is time-consuming, error-prone, and often only takes place on weekdays. Modern Airgap runs automatically on the Empalis Sovereign Vault and occurs immediately after the backup job. This reduces the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of the offsite copy from days to minutes.
Simple yet future-proof
S3-compatible storage, universally usable and always accessible. Hardware replacement or upgrade is transparent for customers. No data migration is required.
Real people
AI is fantastic and a great innovation. But when the unexpected happens, customers don't want to communicate with polite bots, but rather with straightforward, fast help from experts.
Empalis Sovereign Vault is operated live from Germany by trained staff: today, tomorrow, and always.
FAQ and use cases
Empalis Sovereign Vault is made in Germany, with no dependence on foreign providers or hyperscalers subject to the US Cloud Act.
Empalis Sovereign Vault offers a high-performance cloud copy in Germany or the EU. GDPR compliant and ISO 27001 certified.
Empalis Sovereign Vault works exclusively with encrypted data, and all data transfers are equally secure. In addition, our experts implement and continuously monitor IAM policies and best practices for your backup infrastructure.
Reliability and emergency management are key controls under these regulations. Empalis Sovereign Vault offers an easy-to-implement and flexible solution to meet these requirements.
Empalis Sovereign Vault is an OPEX-based solution; you pay a fixed price per TB. It doesn't matter whether you purchase 1 TB or 2000 TB, the service quality remains the same.
Empalis Sovereign Vault compared to other S3 storage solutions like AWS
Flexible vs. Platform Ecosystem
Connecting to S3 storage with large hyperscalers like AWS and others typically results in vendor lock-in to their proprietary services, coupled with a very broad feature portfolio and thus significantly greater complexity in terms of governance, risk, and operation—and usually a long-term dependency. With Empalis Sovereign Vault, customers remain independent with their data and can quickly and flexibly connect their S3 storage to all their systems.
Secure via Secure Air gap vs. "All-in-One" Instance
AWS and other leading hyperscalers offer object storage in various performance tiers and billing models—a great option for companies that want to run cloud applications at scale. However, object storage in a company's own hyperscaler instance is only conditionally suitable as a backup destination, as there is no true media break. Furthermore, the customer is responsible for the implementation and security of the S3 buckets and objects.
"Always Hot" vs. "Cold" Tier Latency
Data access can be delayed or expensive with well-known hyperscalers, depending on the storage tier. Empalis Sovereign Vault is free from these dependencies, minimizing operational uncertainties and enabling rapid recovery.
Immutable Offsite Copy vs. Complex Hyperscaler Environment
While hyperscalers like AWS and others distribute their security features across multiple services and configuration layers, Empalis Sovereign Vault offers immutability by design, including versioning and encryption as integrated components.
Cost Transparency vs. Cost-Based Costs
Another factor is cost and its predictability. For example, AWS charges API and egress fees (0.09 euros/GB on average), which can lead to significant costs in the case of large data volumes.
Conclusion: Sovereignty and Service are Key
While well-known hyperscalers like Google, Microsoft, and AWS host their S3 storage in Germany or make various compliance concessions, metadata and parts of the service (e.g., IAM) are centrally operated in the USA and are therefore subject to the US Cloud Act.
It is worth comparing how data backup is legally regulated for each provider.
Most S3 storage solutions have the following weaknesses:
- Without active management, monitoring, segregation of duties, and disaster recovery support are lacking.
- A fixed price is not possible.
- Definitive data sovereignty in Germany is not guaranteed.
- No air gap, and therefore no media break.
However, there are parameters for increasing security and sovereignty that can be provided operationally, technically, and through service, as exemplified by Empalis Sovereign Vault.
Empalis Sovereign Vault alleviates concerns about where your business-critical data is stored: independently, in Germany, and “always hot.”
For customers already using AWS, Empalis Sovereign Vault is a practical security solution. The AWS European Sovereign Cloud (ESC) offering may also be of interest. Please feel free to contact us for more information.
Do you have questions about Empalis Sovereign Vault? I'd be happy to present the solution to you personally. Simply book an appointment or send me an email.
Philip Röder, Head of Business Development & Consulting
Phone +49 162 4196789