As 2014 nears its end, it’s the perfect time for our second annual Technology Predictions series in which industry experts share their predictions about the hot tech trends that they think will take center stage in 2015. We’ll be sharing all of these predictions with you over the next couple of weeks.

This next set of 2015 Technology Predictions on Big Data comes from Jaspreet Singhat, CEO of Druva, a provider of integrated enterprise online backup software, as well as secure file sharing and data analytics software.

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Prediction No. 1: The storage conversation will be about finding data, not storing it

Corporate data is doubling every 14 months, and increased regulations come with lower retention rates. As a result, organizations are struggling to manage their data. Due to the low cost of storage, many will respond by simply storing everything. But with so much unstructured data, companies will face challenges when it comes to providing data for compliance or litigation purposes, or even identifying data that must be deleted at the end of a retention period.

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Prediction No. 2: Centralized governance will happen

Data privacy will continue to be a big area of focus. As a result, we’re going to see organizations increasingly centralizing their governance efforts in order to regain control of their data. There will be increased spending on governance and more reliance on technology.

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Prediction No. 3: Smart devices will be growing targets for governance

Smart devices will grow as a focus for data governance. More and more organizations will realize that workers are increasingly creating content on their smart devices and, as a result, those devices will more frequently become e-discovery targets. This will drive organizations to take more control over the data on these devices.

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Prediction No. 4: New technologies will arise to centralize governance

Data today is more distributed and this creates challenges for organizations that are trying to regain control of their data. IT has to manage data through each individual tool, which may or may not have built-in governance capabilities. In 2015, we’re going to see new tools emerge that address this fragmented landscape of data, helping organizations to identify and manage data regardless of its context.

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Prediction No. 5: Cloud will be default choice for secondary storage

Storage-related concerns such as security, performance speeds and cost have all been solved in the public cloud. Providers will be able to offer more stringent security than many organizations have internally, along with LAN-like network speeds. And, as cloud storage costs decline, it will continue to be a less expensive option than using tapes and offsite storage for long-term archiving needs.

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Prediction No. 6: Cloud providers will offer local data centers

Data privacy concerns and residency laws can challenge some organizations’ decision to migrate to the cloud. In response, we’ll see cloud providers offering more localized data centers. This will make it possible for organizations to take advantages of the benefits of the public cloud, while also allowing them to navigate the different regional nuances related to data privacy regulations.

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Prediction No. 7: Cloud will be enterprise-ready in 2015

The public cloud will be rapidly adopted in 2015. Organizations are growing more confident with the cloud, especially from a security perspective. Data security in the cloud is more stringent than most organizations today can provide internally, and today’s network speeds make the cloud seem closer than ever. This, combined with the low cost and high data durability, will lead to widespread adoption for core services.

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2015 Technology Predictions graphic courtesy of SiliconANGLE