In our latest Storage Hangout — seen in the video, below — Brian and Irshad talk about how 2015 is shaping up for IT budgets, but keep reading to get a sneak preview of what they’ll be talking about.

Where’s the money going?

Irshad references this InfoWorld article by Stacy Collett. In it, she references a list of five of the IT spending priorities for enterprises in 2015. They are:

Security

Security breaches are seemingly a fact of daily life recently, with a recent breach of Sony’s network being referred to in some publications as one of the biggest ever. Understandably, businesses want to ensure they protect their sensitive information but, perhaps even more importantly, they want to ensure that revenue isn’t impacted by security concerns.

Cloud

Being agile, or elastic depending on your preference is becoming increasingly important, particularly for businesses facing consumers. When computing demand can quadruple on days such as Black Friday, you want to have confidence that your systems are up to the task of meeting demand so you don’t miss out on opportunities or sales.

Business analytics

This is the notion that IT needs to be more aware of the problems businesses face and what types of analytics they can run on data to understand and address these challenges.

Application development

"App development is the bread and butter for any IT shop,” as Irshad says. The emphasis now and in the future is to create apps that are close to what the business demands, that serve and create an excellent experience for business users.

Wireless mobile

The business world has converted from one where IT dictates what equipment employees use to one where BYOD (bring your own device) rules. In addition to needing to secure these devices for business use, businesses must ensure they don’t get in the way of the typical user experience with restrictions.

Other things we expect to see in 2015? Convergence…and sprawl. Learn more about these things and more in the Storage Hangout!