Re: Data preservation then becomes an arse.
I had a customer who switched jobs to being manager of an archival facility. All their* data was tagged with notes on how frequently it was to be tested for recovery, and method of recovery so that it can be migrated onto "safer" media ("safer" for the time being, but still part of the monitoring process). Two elements here: first the media that it sits on (floppy, CD, Zip, Syquest, etc.), and then the software encoding. Big problem out there for the future, and is going to balloon in years to come.
With the cloud presumably there will need to be someone keeping an eye on whether it is still possible to login to your data. If you can't: too late! Backups should therefore be an intrinsic part of that process, but how many non-technical beancounters are happy with that ongoing cost which seems to offer no benefit?
===
On the other side of the coin (and controversially), all that data you've got safely encrypted will become readable in the future. Something to bear in mind...
*I won't say who, but they operate globally.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
