A Thiès online shop lost 3 months of product catalogue in January 2026 after a ransomware on its poorly backed-up Galsen VPS. Manual rebuild cost: 14 days closed plus XOF 2.8M in labour (EUR 4,270). Cloud backup is not a luxury — it is the life insurance of a digital SME. Here is an honest comparison between AWS S3, Wasabi and OVH Cloud Archive in 2026.
TL;DR
- AWS S3 Standard: 14 USD/TB/month (XOF 8,250) plus 90 USD/TB egress
- Wasabi Hot Storage: 6 USD/TB/month (XOF 3,540), free egress
- OVH Cloud Archive: 0.002 EUR/GB/month (XOF 1,320/TB), 0.01 EUR/GB egress
- Recommended SME RTO: 4 to 24 hours
- Recommended RPO: 1 hour (snapshots) to 24h (full backup)
Why cloud backup is now unavoidable
In 2025, 31% of African SMEs faced a security incident with data impact (Africa Cyber Index study). Among those 31%, nearly 60% had no usable backup. Top causes: ransomware (38%), human error (24%), hardware failure (18%), flood/outage (12%), theft (8%).
A USB drive backup is no longer enough. The backup must be:
- Off-site: a geographically distinct datacenter
- Encrypted: AES-256 minimum, with keys you manage
- Versioned: 30 to 90 days of history
- Tested: monthly restore drill
- Documented: runbook accessible outside the main infra
The three 2026 leaders compared
| Criterion | AWS S3 Standard | Wasabi Hot | OVH Cloud Archive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage price /TB/month | 14 USD | 6 USD | 2 EUR |
| Egress /TB | 90 USD | 0 | 10 EUR |
| 1000 PUT requests | 0.005 USD | 0.004 USD | 0.001 EUR |
| SLA availability | 99.99% | 99.9% | 99.9% |
| Stated durability | 11 nines | 11 nines | 11 nines |
| Closest region | Paris | Amsterdam | Roubaix/Strasbourg |
| Dakar latency | 100-145 ms | 110-160 ms | 95-140 ms |
| Restore time | Instant | Instant | 30 min to 12h |
Total annual cost for 500 GB
| Solution | Storage | 1x/yr egress | Annual total XOF |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS S3 Standard | 84 USD | 45 USD | 76,000 |
| Wasabi Hot | 36 USD | 0 USD | 21,000 |
| OVH Cloud Archive | 12 EUR | 5 EUR | 11,000 |
| Local USB only | XOF 35,000 HDD | 0 | 35,000 |
OVH Cloud Archive wins on raw cost but loses on restore time. Wasabi remains the best balance for 80% of SMEs.
RTO and RPO: the real KPIs
RTO (Recovery Time Objective): maximum acceptable time to restore service after incident.
RPO (Recovery Point Objective): maximum acceptable data loss.
For a typical Dakar SME:
- Simple brochure site: RTO 24h, RPO 24h. Daily Wasabi backup is enough.
- E-commerce with cart: RTO 4h, RPO 1h. PostgreSQL snapshots every hour.
- B2B SaaS with subscriptions: RTO 1h, RPO 15 min. Active replication plus S3 backup.
- Transactional platform: RTO 15 min, RPO 5 min. Multi-AZ plus continuous backup.
Recommended Kolonell architecture
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For a Next.js plus Neon PostgreSQL site at Kolonell:
| Layer | Method | Target | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Source code | Git push | Private GitHub | Every commit |
| Database | Encrypted pg_dump | Wasabi Amsterdam | Daily 03:00 |
| Media (images) | rclone sync | Wasabi plus local NAS | Daily 04:00 |
| Configuration | Ansible vault | Git plus Wasabi | Every deploy |
| App logs | Logtail | Wasabi (30 days) | Continuous |
Securing the backup itself
An unencrypted backup is a data leak waiting to happen. Ground rules:
- AES-256 encryption client-side before upload (rclone crypt, restic, borgbackup)
- Keys stored separately: password manager (Bitwarden, 1Password) or HSM
- MFA on the cloud account: mandatory on AWS, Wasabi, OVH
- Versioning enabled: protects against ransomware that encrypts backups
- Monthly restore test: pick a random file, verify integrity
FAQ
Q: Is Wasabi reliable given the low price?
A: Yes — Wasabi is a serious player founded by Carbonite, used by 50,000+ companies. The low price comes from an optimised architecture (no storage tiers) and zero egress fees. 99.9% SLA, 11 nines durability.
Q: Can a Neon PostgreSQL database be backed up to S3?
A: Yes via pg_dump plus AWS CLI. A 30-line bash script, schedulable with cron or GitHub Actions. Monthly cost for a 5 GB dump: less than EUR 1.
Q: How long to keep backups?
A: Recommended standard: 30 daily, 12 monthly, 7 annual (Senegal accounting requirement). Wasabi enforces retention via lifecycle policy.
Q: Is an off-cloud backup (physical USB) still needed?
A: Yes for the most critical data. The 3-2-1 rule: 3 copies, 2 different media, 1 off-site. Encrypted HDD in a safe plus Wasabi cloud plus production.
Conclusion
Wasabi at 6 USD/TB/month is the best value for 80% of African SMEs in 2026. AWS still matters when you already live in the AWS ecosystem, OVH for European sovereign cloud fans. The key: one tested backup beats a thousand untested ones. Kolonell sets up the backup pipeline for its clients. Request a free audit or message WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
