The top three trends facing enterprise IT departments today are constricted budgets (31 percent), cloud (25 percent) and data explosion (25 percent), according to a survey of IT executives from NaviSite Inc., a provider of hosting, managed applications, managed messaging and managed cloud services.

Among the primary findings from the survey is IT executives’ need to know where their company data is located. Nearly half said it is highly critical to know where their data resides in the cloud, and 80 percent said they are storing data in two or more locations. Moreover, 64 percent of respondents said their No. 1 data challenge is security.

“This survey really highlights that the basic tenants of cloud computing are now top-of-mind for the enterprise, with location and security of data being a primary focus for IT executives,” said Chris Patterson, vice president of product management for NaviSite.

NaviSite surveyed more than 500 IT professionals from organizations with more than 200 employees.