Question

Background:

When Ava started her Business Accounting firm 2 years ago, with 10 employees. This company of hers offers both accounting and bookkeeping services to businesses and is busy between December and April (5 months). Today, her company has 80 employees, supported by a team of 3 Information Technology staff. Her company has a local area network, capable of supporting 100 users/employees. In order to maintain data integrity and security, all data records are accessed via a database server running on the company’s local area network. The database server, of course, enables real-time access to data records. (Hence, no data records are stored on the employee’s computer.)

In the last 2 months, her company lost several bids on potential business projects due to the lack of IT resources, specifically the lack of storage capacity. Ava has decided to adopt the necessary the cloud computing service in order to resolve this issue. In other words, she has decided to shifte from assess-based physical IT resources to service-based virtual resources.

Your task:

1. Research and study to understand the key business operations of Accounting and the key business operations of Bookkeeping. 2. Create a screening rubric (in MS Word or MS Excel) to be used to evaluate/select the cloud service provider for resolving the abovementioned issue for Ava’s Business Accounting firm.

Hints:  You need to determine the cloud service that may resolve the issue before you can create the screening rubric.  Due to data sensitivity (integrity and security), Ava’s business can only use the private cloud model.  Using the rubric created by you, can you select a cloud service provider that can meet Ava’s business requirements?

Answer 1

1. Parameter	Key aspects of Book Keeping	Key aspects of Accounting
   Definiton	Bookkeeping is mainly related to identifying, measuring, and recording, financial transactions	Accounting is the process of summarizing, interpreting, and communicating financial transactions which were classified in the ledger account
   Preparation of Financial Statements	NA	Financial statements are prepared during the accounting process
   Analysis	NA	Accounting uses bookkeeping information to analyze and interpret the data and then compiles it into reports
   Types	Basically there are two types of bookkeeping - Single entry and double entry bookkeeping	The accounting department does preparations of a company's budgets and plans loan proposals

2. On-Premise vs Cloud Computing Differences
   FACTORS	ON-PREMISE	CLOUD COMPUTING
   DEPLOYMENT	Every resource deployed is within the infrastructure. The enterprise will be responsible for maintaining and handling the related process. The access is limited to the Organization only.	In Public Cloud, resources are deployed at the service providers end and accessed by the public. In Private Cloud, resources are deployed according to the customer’s need and can be accessed by them only.
   COST	The cost incurred is for the servers, hardware, storage devices, software, power consumption and also space where your architecture is built.	In Cloud Computing you only need to pay for the resources you use. There are no separate maintenance charge, no upfront charge, and no upkeep costs associated.
   SECURITY	Organizations who have sensitive data E.g. Banks must use a certain level of security. The security is taken care by either a third party or by a group of staff using an external tool.	The secure environment is provided by the Cloud Service providers. There is a broad set of policies and technologies provided by the CSPs. These take care of the security of your data.
   MAINTENANCE	The user is responsible for maintaining the server hardware and software, the data backups, storage devices, and disaster recovery.	Cloud Computing provides greater flexibility as the user/organization only pay for what they use and can easily scale to meet the demand.
   FLEXIBILITY	When you buy/ make changes to your infrastructure, the cost incurred will be by the organization.	You can quickly upgrade your infrastructure to your needs without having to make large investments in costly hardware every time.

     

3. Some of the top Cloud Computing Service Provider Companies are:

• Amazon Web Services
• Rackspace
• Alibaba Cloud
• Microsoft Azure
• Google Cloud Platform
• VMware
• Salesforce
• Oracle Cloud
• IBM Cloud
• Verizon Cloud
• Dell Cloud

Rather than look at the 'best CSP', it would be better to look at which CSP meets your requirements best.
Factors to be considered for selecting a Cloud Service Provider (CSP):
a) Is your desired region supported? Are there regulatory requirements for data localisation?
b) Cost for the service and your budget
c) For an outsourcing company, Customer/Client Preference of service provider needs to be factored in
d) Cost involved in training employees on the Cloud Service Platform
e) Customer support
f) The provider should have a successful track record of stability/uptime/reliability
g) Reviews of the company by others; references or feedback from acquaintances.
h) Would the SLAs of the CSP match or better the SLAs you commit to your clients?