Cloud Computing Technology

Exercise for Topic 1

SCHOOL OF ACCOUNTANCY

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA

BKAS3113 SEMINAR IN ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS

DR. AKILAH ABDULLAH

EXERCISE FOR TOPIC 1: OVERVIEW OF TECHNOLOGY TRENDS, IT AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

QUESTION 1

A.       Cloud Computing technology is one of the most influential technologies to business organization. Most Multinational Corporations (MNCs) in the computing and telecommunication industry have shifted to this technology in order to improve their customer services. In recent year, cloud computing also becoming a new concern to some Chief Information Officers (CIOs) of companies in Asia as well as in developed countries.

The 2014 State of the Cloud Survey shows that the time for cloud adoption has arrived. The vast majority of organizations have already embarked on a cloud journey that will make Information Technology (IT) a critical component of corporate growth and profits. IT organizations are rapidly moving toward a world where they can offer a portfolio of cloud services, both public and private, to meet the diverse requirements of their applications. Organizations are already seeing significant benefits from their use of cloud, and the barriers to adoption are rapidly disappearing. As a result, each step companies take in their cloud journey delivers increasing value.

(source: http://www.rightscale.com/blog/cloud-industry-insights/cloud-computing-trends-2014-state-cloud-survey)

REQUIRED:

1. Briefly define cloud computing technology.

Answer:

Cloud computing technology is defined as a model for delivering information technology services which mean a type of computing that relies on sharing computing resources rather than personally control the application. Software packages and data are stored in the servers. High security because personally are less used.

1. By referring to the above case, discuss TWO (2) benefit of cloud computing to business organization.

Answer:

Based on the above case, two benefit of cloud computing to business organization are:

• Capital expenditure on hardware can be removed and will be replaced by operating expenditure on cloud services, it also have an elasticity of services provided.

• Flexible provision of information – information can be access at anywhere, anytime, any internet enabled device whenever is needed.

• Software management simplified – cloud software installed and updated centrally. Company don’t have to worried about the cost that should be paid because it is effective and efficient cost.

1. Explain TWO (2) impacts of cloud computing on accountants as financial controller in the company.

Answer:

1. Faster and more connected workforce across the globe. Accountant will need to explore ways of establishing actual costs.
2. Improved productivity and efficiency gains. Accountant need to educate those outside the finance function on the complexity of total cost calculations and clarify national and international tax regulations and complications where the country have.
3. Improved client servicing. Accountants need to demand more granular use of, and price data from, cloud vendors – particularly infrastructure providers. Accountant can provide more services to client to give more satisfied.

B.        Big Data Technology is another breakthrough in technology. Data from various sources such as the Web,social media content (tweets, blogs, Facebook) as well as video data from retails and from call center voice data are captured, managed and analyzed using traditional methods.

Organization that uses Big Data technology discovers three key differences between Big Data and the traditional way of handling data analysis environment:

i)   Data flows become the central focus compared to the stock of data in a data warehouse. Organization needs to think in terms of continuous flows and processes and this is supported by Tom Deutsch, program director for big data technologies and applied analytics at IBM who said "Streaming analytics allows you to process data during an event to improve the outcome”. Organization also needs to be prepared to make decision and take action when necessary.

ii)   Dependency on data scientists and product and process developers compared to data analysts. It is highly important for the organization to employ creative IT skills personnel equipped with the ability to communicate effectively with decision makers.

iii)  Separation of analytics away from IT function and into core business, operational and production functions. (Analytics - a process of making data meaningful and valuable through statistics or data visualization.) The need for new products such as open source platform like Hadoop which is designed to deal with big data.

Big data technology requires a big change in terms of the way to handle data, ability to process data so that it provides predictive information for actions and decision making. Traditional functions and practices need to be revamped to make way for the new way of treating data from rich sources so that organization would benefit from this technology.

(Source: Davenport, Barth and Bean (2012), How 'Big Data' is different, MIT Sloan Management Review)

REQUIRED:

1. Briefly define Big Data technology.

Answer:

1. A collection of data sets so massive in size that it goes beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to efficiently and effectively capture and manage.
2. Offers an opportunity to get a deeper understanding of their customers’ attitudes, preferences, and behaviors and make every interaction more relevant, timely, secure, and profitable.

1. Discuss TWO (2) reasons why business organization should adopt Big Data technology.

Answer:

1. The business organization should adopt Big Data to Embracing ERP system on cloud, results in improved reliability, support, no ownership, low manageable costs and speedy setup in company process.
2.  Big data insights diminish the risk by optimizing the complex decisions involved in unplanned event or business decisions.
3. Searching the data from data warehouse is time consuming, but that could be done in no more time with big data.

(c)      Taking the airline company situation, provide TWO (2) examples on how big data could be implemented to improve further the company information system.