In 2015, more companies will migrate their compliant data to the cloud, there will be more cloud-targeted attacks by hackers or countries, and more U.S. cloud computing companies will deal with increasing European privacy regulations. This is all according to Ariel Dan, Executive VP and co-founder of Porticor Ltd., a cloud encryption and cloud security solutions provider for enterprises and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Dan’s predictions about enterprise cloud are all part of our second annual Technology Predictions series in which industry experts share their predictions with us about the hot tech trends that they think will take center stage in 2015. We’ll be sharing all of their predictions with you over the next couple of days. Read on for more from Dan.

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Prediction No. 1: Companies will migrate their compliant data to the cloud

In 2014, we saw a significant adoption of the cloud by health-technology companies that used the cloud to provide services to healthcare providers and consumers. While we estimate that the cloud healthcare and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliance space will continue to grow in 2015, we also forecast that additional companies will migrate their compliant data to the cloud. Financial institutions will continue to rapidly adopt more and more cloud technologies and, in 2015, we will see additional requirements for cloud PCI compliance as more and more services will be provided as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications to consumers.

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Prediction No. 2: We will see more cloud-targeted attacks by hackers or countries

The attacks on Apple, Inc.’s iCloud, Target Corp., Staples, Inc., and Morgan Stanley are only a sample of targeted attacks that have been performed by hackers or sometimes even countries. As data migrates to the cloud, we will see more and more cloud-targeted attacks in 2015. It is important to highlight the fact that, in most cases, the cloud infrastructure is more secure than most corporate data centers. Nevertheless, the cloud security model is all about shared responsibility between the cloud provider and the organization. As a result, cyber security solutions for cloud environments will play a critical role in the data migration process in 2015.

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Prediction No. 3: Expect to see more U.S. cloud computing companies dealing with European privacy regulations

Perhaps the biggest headlines for 2014 were related to the Edward Snowden/National Security Agency (NSA) scandal. The impact this has had on U.S. cloud providers has been significant. Many European customers completely stalled existing projects or moved them to local European cloud companies. Microsoft Corp. is arguing against not exposing European data stored in its Ireland data center to the U.S. authorities. Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) has recently opened a new “global region” in Germany to comply with the local German (and European) requirement for data to be stored on national soil.

In 2015, we expect to see more U.S. cloud computing companies dealing with European privacy regulations and the requirements of the U.S. government to access the data. This means that U.S. cloud companies may elect to open fully-owned subsidiaries on European soil. Also, we predict that all companies will implement encryption techniques which will allow the end user customer to manage and control the encryption keys.

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Prediction No. 4: More security companies will adjust their security solution to support Big Data use cases

Big Data is widely adopted in the cloud, and this trend will continue to grow in 2015 as more and more enterprise companies enter their cloud era. As in many cases, Big Data contains sensitive or private information so there will be a growing requirement for Big Data security solutions driven by business and security stakeholders. In 2015, more and more security companies will adjust their security solution to support Big Data use cases—and this includes better integration with cloud infrastructure, automated scaling and RESTful application programming interfaces (APIs).

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2015 Technology Predictions graphic courtesy of SiliconANGLE