Jason Tsai (final score: 9 out of 10)
Mr. Sherman
Gr. 11 Accounting
19 November 2012

Cloud Computing Nowadays, people all depend tremendously on their own cloud. Cloud is a service “that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet” (Rouse), wherein it stores the user’s personal data ranging from photos, documents, movies to accounting data from business firms. In other words, many famous Internet services we now use are mostly cloud computed. For instance, Facebook, Gmail, Hotmail, and most recently Apple’s iCloud service are all cloud computed, because they all depend on the use of Internet and can be accessed anytime as long as Internet access is provided. Now, there are two types of cloud: public cloud and private cloud. In a public cloud, the service provider distributes resources such as storage and application the public over the Internet. A private cloud provides service to a limited number of people (maybe a small business) who holds the proprietorship to access it. Thus, the organization have the authority to control it. “Private or public, the goal of cloud computing is to provide easy, scalable access to computing resources and IT services.” (Rouse)

Benefits and Potential Problems One of the biggest benefits of cloud computing is its accessibility that the user needs nothing but a computer/phone and Internet access. With this accessibility, the workforce can be easily globalized because workers can access them at anywhere. Some of the biggest traits that differentiate cloud computing to traditional business application are its simplicity and inexpensive set-up cost. Also, it does not require a team of experts to install, run configure, test, secure, maintain, and update them like traditional ones do. In other words, cloud computing reduces spending on technology infrastructure. Because cloud computing is based on a shared database, it does not need licensing fees or large amount of different hardware installed, which also require a considerable amount of electricity. Instead, the virtualization of cloud computing applications enables the firms to increase volume output with fewer people. Thus, less personnel training is needed. (Delaney) Unfortunately, there are concerns and issues to consider. Perhaps the two biggest concerns about cloud computing is security and privacy. They worry many businesses to hand in important data over another company. It discourages many head executives since the moment the business start using the cloud, the data is already ‘exposed’. (Strickland) As a matter of fact, there is a possibility that the service provider would block the businesses’ Internet access to the cloud once all the data is uploaded by some fictitious pretext. When it comes to the usage of servers, the Internet connection matters a lot. The truth is, there are possible downtimes. Even the best cloud computing services suffer server outrage, too. (Ward)

Benefits and Weakness of 2 Different Accounting Cloud Computing Systems The two different accounting cloud computing systems are Salesforce and NetSuite. Salesforce’s “combination of Force.com, PaaS tools and AppExchange lead the SaaS CRM industry in terms of cloud integration, software customization, third party extensibility and ecosystem.” Furthermore, its adoption of simple user interface has attracted many users loyal users. However, some drawbacks of salesforce include the lack of sophisticated business intelligence, and do not provide Service Legal Agreement (SLA). (Salesforce.com Strengths and Weaknesses) On the other hand, NetSuite, another powerful online cloud computing service, provides an inherent enterprise resource planning (ERP) integration, which “delivers a comprehensive 360 degree view of customer data and interactions, including visibility into financial transactions. It gives sales or support staff visibility to quotes, orders, invoices, credits, credit limits and outstanding receivables.” As for