The Future of Cloud Computing

Security Concerns to Be Examined 

The role of cloud computing in the twenty-first century has become increasingly significant as finance and accounting firms across the United States of America dread cybercrime as an emergent security setback to their ventures (Botta et al., 2016). The prevalence of cybercrime, not only in the United States of America but also in the rest of the world, has been a significant issue, which needs up to date solutions to combat it (Botta et al., 2016). Thus, the managing partner will need to come up with the contemporary examination techniques to detect the issue of cybercrime at the twenty-five CPAs in the five different states of the United States of America. New research performed on cybercrime has concluded that information security presents the commonest setback to the firm in the financial sector of the United States of America (Botta et al., 2016). The privacy of financial information is one of the pillars that support the finance and accounting firms, and the CPAs are not an exception. The information technology departments have been severely affected by the exacerbating prevalence of cybercrime with more companies offering financial services falling victim to the attackers (Botta et al., 2016). Notably, the attackers are known to ransom the financial information back to the companies leading to the incurrence of enormous losses for the companies (Moise, 2017). Through the research and development, departments of the financial services industry players, the companies have been able to formulate several solutions that they have expected to counteract the cybercrime menace. Nonetheless, cyber attackers have also revolutionized their tactics to enable them to render most of the organizations helpless (Moise, 2017). The IT departments of such companies have to look for the state-of-the-art cybercrime solutions, which are currently being offered by the advent of cloud computing to save the day for the firms. 

The need to secure the data and applications at the CPA firms across the five states in the USA is a security concern that has to be examined before My & Say Accounting CPA Firm moves to the next step, which is to find out the best medium, to use in securely linking the twenty-five CPA firms it owns. The rapidly changing market conditions in the finance sector of the united states of America has contributed to the emergence of big data handling which requires more advanced security and handling (Hashem et al., 2015). The professionals handling big data have to be thoroughly trained since they contain a company's essential information, which the cyber attackers mostly target in their heinous acts. Nonetheless, the finance sector has innovated and developed the ways of managing and securing their massive amounts of information with reduced perception of threat from the online attackers (Hashem et al., 2015). Competition has also resulted in the need to effectively manage and secure their data as the companies strive to maintain their reputation in the market and attract more customers. That is because most of the financial service companies, which have been faced with the issue of cybercrime have lost a large number of existing customers and potential clients owing to the cybercrime issues (Hashem et al., 2015). The other security concern that My & Say Accounting CPA Firm needs to consider and examine is the ability of the business to adapt to the business environments that each of the twenty-five CPA firms is (Hashem et al., 2015). According to research, the lack of proper adaptation to the business environments and the insufficiency of the appropriate information security systems have contributed to the low levels of innovation to combat the issue of cybercrime that keeps threatening the modern businesses. 

Convenience and Opportunities of Cloud Computing 

Soon, cloud computing will be the backbone of the finance sector in the united states of America as a method of combating cybercrime and promoting the security of information in the finance sector (Yang et al., 2017). Large amounts of data in the companies classified under the financial industry are feasible for use. Hence, My & Say Accounting CPA Firm has to ensure that the security measures that are put in place to safeguard the information, such as cloud computing, are comprehensive and provide all-around security coverage. Cloud computing as an emergent form of storage of data offers the financial service companies the opportunity to manage the different levels of demand in the finance industry (Yang et al., 2017). Due to the rapid changes in the advancement of technology and the needs of the customers, the companies in the financial sector have had to be prepared of the shifts in demands that take place time to time. The other opportunity that My & Say Accounting CPA Firm can reap from the use of cloud computing is reliability. Unlike the storage using flash disk drives and other external storage equipment which can be lost or tampered with by unauthorized parties, cloud computing provides a backup to the information of the firm and secures it so that only the authorized personnel can retrieve the data (Yang et al., 2017). A plus on cloud computing over the external storage, in this case, is that the entire process is done online and My & Say Accounting CPA Firm does not have to incur the costs of purchasing external storage devices or paying for their security. The reliability of cloud computing compared to the other storage methods that finance companies can use is thus guaranteed. 

Cloud computing is transforming the finance sector in the United States of America in a desirable manner. Cloud computing will give My & Say Accounting CPA Firm a chance to protect its customers from fraud. Finance and counting fraud is increasingly becoming a problem against the financial sector and the clients in the industry. To combat the acts of fraud that may be done on the finance and accounting customers, the payers of the industry such as My & Say Accounting CPA Firm has come up with contemporary methods to combat fraud. With the help from IBM, a French company called SiS has developed a blockchain in the cloud of IBM, which acts as a guard against the tampering with the verified finance and accounting information, which enables the clients to detect anomalies in their data in just a matter of seconds (Gobalakrishnan & Arun, 2016). With such innovation, the CPA firms owned by My & Say Accounting CPA Firm will be free from the advancing levels of fraud. The last opportunity that cloud computing is offering My & Say Accounting CPA Firm is the building of an environment that is security-rich for data and science (Gobalakrishnan & Arun, 2016). As competition among the CPA firms intensifies, the need for increased marketing activities among the businesses has presented itself. The advancement of the level of technology has pushed the marketing sectors of the various companies to greater heights (Gobalakrishnan & Arun, 2016). The techniques and data used in the marketing process have to be secured and managed to ensure that My & Say Accounting CPA Firm follows a favorable trend in the market and can attract more customers. 

Pros of Cloud Computing 

Cloud computing has a wide variety of benefits to the financial industry. The first benefit that cloud computing technology will offer My & Say Accounting CPA Firm is the reduction in the costs in the field of infrastructure (Drew, 2012). With the continued use of cloud computing, the substantial upfront costs and the unnecessary expenditures can be avoided as My & Say Accounting CPA Firm focuses on the various vital business projects. Furthermore, the cost of purchasing storage devices for the company's information will be alleviated by the cloud computing which will require a reliable internet connection as one of the essential factors influencing the success of cloud computing. The other advantage of cloud computing to My & Say Accounting CPA Firm will be the improvement in the manageability of information in the company (Drew, 2012). With the aid of cloud computing, financial organizations can make rapid changes to their available resources in the face of unprecedented fluctuations in corporate requests. Also, cloud computing would enable the companies to have their applications with the required data to be uploaded online at ease. The third benefit of cloud computing to be realized by My & Say Accounting CPA Firm is its resiliency (Drew, 2012). The systems that are present in cloud computing as a technology are inherent to the operations in the finance and accounting firms owing to their ability in the creation and establishment of enterprise availabilities that are wide enough to keep the continuity of the business ventures going which is relevant to the financial and accounting institutions. Cloud computing provides business ventures with an opportunity to face the various pitfalls that are experienced in the finance and accounting sector. 

The other merit of using cloud computing for the financial sector is scalability (Drew, 2012). The finance and accounting sector in the United States of America is known to have large mergers and acquisitions, which involves the transfer of a lot of money and information. The cloud computing technology comes in handy in the facilitating of the transmission of corporate data and the integration of the acquired businesses more convenient. The cloud computing technology also works on an affordable concept that makes the scaling of the information technology operations possible according to the needs of the financial institution. That ends up saving the company money, which can be reinvested in its other activities. The additional benefit of cloud computing is that the data stored on the cloud computing storage is accessible (Drew, 2012). As long as the company has stable access of the internet, the managers can access the financial data quickly without having to involve many people, which may be exposing My & Say Accounting CPA Firm to the danger of cybercrime. The data is also available anywhere at any time, which improves the tracking of business performance. The last benefit associated with the use of cloud computing to My & Say Accounting CPA Firm is the promotion of information security (Drew, 2012). The cloud computing technology is designed to offer a high level of protection to the data in a business. The information about the company will be stored in a central location, which will maximize the vigilance of the data and the personnel responsible for storing the data. 

Cons of Cloud Computing 

The first and most significant setback of the cloud computing system is security. As cloud computing technology was introduced to the corporate world, many managers believed that it was the one-time solution to cybercrime. Notwithstanding, the cyber attackers have been working day and night to come up with the various technologies to hack into the systems of companies which have safeguarded their data using the cloud computing (Drew, 2012). Their main aim has been to manipulate the data and use it to their advantage. The security risks of cloud computing technology have hence been a top concern for the companies. The second challenge faced by cloud computing is the management and containment of the costs involved in cloud computing. The technology has been known to save the modern venture large sums of money due to the omission of the purchase of hardware and other devices that were previously used for the storage of company information. Nonetheless, the companies have to ensure that they have a stable internet connection, which may be expensive, to back up, and retrieve the required data (Drew, 2012). The third disadvantage associated with cloud computing technology is the lack of resources and expertise within the companies to implement and maintain the systems (Drew, 2012). My & Say Accounting CPA Firm has to ensure that it sources for and hires the qualified professionals who can efficiently manage the cloud computing resources owned by the company. The lack of expertise among the hired personnel is a downturn for the company and may expose the information to cybercrime and the access by the other unwanted parties in and out of the company. The insufficiency of the resources to maintain cloud computing may also derail the efforts of My & Say Accounting CPA Firm in the implementation of cloud computing technology. 

The fourth demerit associated with cloud computing is the challenge in the governance and control of the resources and devices enabling cloud computing (Drew, 2012). It is the duty of the IT department at My & Say Accounting CPA Firm to ensure that the assets of the company are used in accordance to the stipulated manner to boost the efficiency of the cloud computing technology in the organization. Most of the IT departments lack the oversight and control that ensures that the various resources and assets in the company are used to promote the long term and short term strategic corporate goals such as the use and maintenance of the cloud computing technology. The fifth pitfall linked to the use of cloud computing is the compliance issue (Drew, 2012). Lack of compliance with the procedures stipulated for cloud computing technology is slowly becoming a risk facing modern business ventures. The movement of data from the internal storage of the company to the cloud storage, for example, is the government by the various rules that differ across the multiple industries under which the companies are divided. The lack of compliance with such rules may lead to legal proceedings against My & Say Accounting CPA Firm, which may lead to loss of money for the company. The last disadvantage associated with the use of cloud computing is the challenge in the management of multiple clouds (Drew, 2012). The rapid increase in the control of more than a single cloud by the American companies has been experienced. Most of the firms are running private and public clouds with a few of them combining their operations. In case of confusion, the companies may find themselves disclosing the hidden data from the unauthorized parties by mistaking the private cloud for a public one. Such a scenario may have severe consequences for My & Say Accounting CPA Firm. 

Future of Cloud Computing In the Firm 

The rate at which the finance and accounting sector in the United States of America is looking at the cloud is exponentially increasing. Cloud computing has been used in a variety of ways in the industry with most of the financial services company using the cloud computing technology for more than half of the transactions that are made (Cleary & Quinn, 2016). When it came to the adoption of the public cloud systems, the finance sector of the united states of America was a little skeptical of the application of cloud computing and how it would help the organizations. The industry was accepting and adopting new technologies but was still cautious not to be affected by cybercrime, which had been trending. The use of cloud computing in the financial services industry is meant to uphold the goals of upholding the ultimate security and the privacy of data (Cleary & Quinn, 2016). However, with the various regulations that guarded the financial services industry against the cybercrime-related cases, the advent and continuous improvement of the cloud computing has enabled the companies to pursue their security goals while at the same time embracing the latest forms of technology. As the growth of the multi-cloud option is realized, the financial services industry has increasingly shifted its attention towards cloud technology and especially in the storage of data and facilitation of business transactions (Cleary & Quinn, 2016). My & Say Accounting CPA Firm, being in the finance and accounting sector, is part of the industry's goals to maximize the use of cloud computing for the various transactions taking place between the company and other companies and between the company and its clients. 

The companies in the financial services sector have been the recipients of the good news that cloud computing has offered to the IT departments of the organizations in the other industries in the united states of America (Marshall & Lambert, 2018). My & Say Accounting CPA Firm has to implement cloud computing and experience the results of the technology first hand. The future of cloud clouting at the organization provides My & Say Accounting CPA Firm and its CPA businesses an opportunity to make use of the multiple cloud system which will enable the company to have a public cloud and a private one (Marshall & Lambert, 2018). The private cloud will be useful in the storage of the essential information that is not supposed to be accessed by any unauthorized parties. The information will be stored using cloud computing technology (Marshall & Lambert, 2018). On the other hand, the public cloud will be available to the employees and customers of My & Say Accounting CPA Firm. They will be required to set up accounts to have an opportunity to access the cloud, which may have their personal information stored and secured. The firm will reap the benefit associated with cloud computing after its integration. 

References 

Botta, A., De Donato, W., Persico, V., & Pescapé, A. (2016). Integration of Cloud Computing And Internet of Things: A Survey. Future Generation Computer Systems , 56 , 684-700. 

Cleary, P., & Quinn, M. (2016). Intellectual Capital and Business Performance: An Exploratory Study of the Impact of Cloud-based Accounting and Finance Infrastructure. Journal of Intellectual Capital , 17 (2), 255-278. 

Drew, J. (2012). Heads in the Cloud: Part 1. Journal of Accountancy , 213 (2), 20. Gobalakrishnan, N., & Arun, C. (2016, December). SIS: A Scheme for Dynamic Independent Task Scheduling in a Cloud Environment. In 2016 International Conference on Control, Instrumentation, Communication and Computational Technologies (ICCICCT) (pp. 272-277). IEEE. 

Hashem, I. A. T., Yaqoob, I., Anuar, N. B., Mokhtar, S., Gani, A., & Khan, S. U. (2015). The Rise of “Big Data” on Cloud Computing: Review and Open Research Issues. Information Systems , 47 , 98-115. 

Marshall, T. E., & Lambert, S. L. (2018). Cloud-based Intelligent Accounting Applications: Accounting Task Automation using IBM Watson Cognitive Computing. Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting , 15 (1), 199-215. 

Moise, A. C. (2017). The Legal Regulation of Cybercrime in the United States of America Legislation. Journal of Advanced Research in Law and Economics , 8 (5 (27)), 1576-1578. 

Yang, C., Huang, Q., Li, Z., Liu, K., & Hu, F. (2017). Big Data and Cloud Computing: Innovation Opportunities and Challenges. International Journal of Digital Earth , 10 (1), 13-53.