Accounting Information - Article Review
Article Review
Journal of Accountancy
UMUC
Accounting Information Systems 326
Professor T. Wood
December 4, 2011
Cloud Computing: What Accountants Need to Know, (Journal of Accountancy, Oct 2010). This article answers the questions that Accountants and CPA should be asking themselves in regards to the new technology that is growing fast. Cloud technology is growing so fast that, cloud services revenues were expected to surpass $68 billion dollars in 2010, which was almost a 17% increase over 2009 revenues. Cloud computing is like e-commerce but considered more cost effective because it reduces the need for a business or companies to have full IT department, purchasing software or maintaining on site systems.
This article goes on to explain the benefits and risks of doing business in the cloud. Benefits are that, the implementation process can be done very quickly especially if a business has multiply locations. The initial costs are usually low because vendors offer their services to multiply customers that share in the cost. In most cases there is little or no cost for hardware or maintenance cost because the vendor takes care of maintaining the software and servers. As for the risk, businesses need to analyze the applications and options offered by the various cloud vendors and determine how they would fit within their current IT systems. Security and reliability have to be taken into consideration as well, especially if all of your data is being stored in a cloud with other entities. The AICPA has established guidelines that provide “a highly specialized examination of a services organization’s internal controls.” There are 3 different types of reports that are posted for free on various websites.
Until this article I didn’t really understand the information I was hearing about cloud computing and what it meant but after reading this article and comparing it to the system information in our book for class, I have a
Journal of Accountancy
UMUC
Accounting Information Systems 326
Professor T. Wood
December 4, 2011
Cloud Computing: What Accountants Need to Know, (Journal of Accountancy, Oct 2010). This article answers the questions that Accountants and CPA should be asking themselves in regards to the new technology that is growing fast. Cloud technology is growing so fast that, cloud services revenues were expected to surpass $68 billion dollars in 2010, which was almost a 17% increase over 2009 revenues. Cloud computing is like e-commerce but considered more cost effective because it reduces the need for a business or companies to have full IT department, purchasing software or maintaining on site systems.
This article goes on to explain the benefits and risks of doing business in the cloud. Benefits are that, the implementation process can be done very quickly especially if a business has multiply locations. The initial costs are usually low because vendors offer their services to multiply customers that share in the cost. In most cases there is little or no cost for hardware or maintenance cost because the vendor takes care of maintaining the software and servers. As for the risk, businesses need to analyze the applications and options offered by the various cloud vendors and determine how they would fit within their current IT systems. Security and reliability have to be taken into consideration as well, especially if all of your data is being stored in a cloud with other entities. The AICPA has established guidelines that provide “a highly specialized examination of a services organization’s internal controls.” There are 3 different types of reports that are posted for free on various websites.
Until this article I didn’t really understand the information I was hearing about cloud computing and what it meant but after reading this article and comparing it to the system information in our book for class, I have a