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Moving legacy IT to the cloud is a top objective for most organizations, but there are significant barriers in terms of data regulations, security and uncertain cloud costs -- according to a study released by Archive360.

The future of legacy application data and the cloud -- report found that only 35% of organizations store more than 50% of their legacy app data on cloud services. Yet more than 80% say their priority is to move their data within 12 months or sooner.

Those plans, however, are made uncertain by three major issues: 60% said data compliance was a big concern with changing data regulations in California and in Europe; security is a huge concern for 55%, especially with the rise in ransomware and the large fines if hackers gain access to data, and about 50% said they had uncertainty over budgets for cloud-based IT plus there is a significant lack of IT talent in this area. 

These factors will delay IT migration, but Archive360 says there will be benefits in retiring legacy data with a central management solution, which simplifies satisfying regulatory and security obligations. 

Many organizations have been motivated to move their legacy IT to the cloud by increasing cyberattacks. But it's not that easy to outsource a critical function. Over 90% reported that their cloud service providers are unable to meet their security requirements. 

About one-quarter of respondents said they had already been a cyberattack victim at a cloud service, and ten% said they didn't know their exposure. 

Two hundred senior executives were surveyed across a range of geographies, company sizes and industries. 

The full report can be seen here.

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