More than 34% of UK businesses’ data is stored outside the country, and moving it back could cost an average of £1.6m for each organisation.
According to the VMware survey, 76% of organisations have some business critical data residing overseas and almost seven in 10 businesses are concerned about shifting their data to meet regulatory, compliance or customer needs.
Half of the companies surveyed said they are yet to start making contingency plans while just 10% are fully prepared to move their data to the UK if required.
About 95% of respondents said they use some form of cloud services to host their data. 37% of companies use public cloud, while hybrid cloud is being used by 34%.
VMware chief technologist and technical director for vCloud Air, EMEA, Richard Munro said only a third (37%) of organisations could say with complete confidence where all their data is stored, so it will be difficult for them to assess whether it is compliant in any eventuality.
"The best approach is to be prepared for change well ahead of the new directive. This includes clear visibility into where data is stored when using a cloud provider, and having the ability to move it from one location to another if necessary within a short timescale."
Vanson Bourne carried out the research, which was sponsored by VMware, on 250 UK IT decision makers.
