3 Ways Cloud Technology can Benefit Accountants

Hello everyone, today I will be typing up 3 ways cloud technology can benefit accountants.

1. Can be used remotely As an accountant you’ll probably be required to move around a bit, either going to different customers or working from home. Doing this means that you’ll have to take all the documents you need and the applications to do your work on with you. That would mean having a laptop that is capable of running all the required applications on it, applications installed on it to do the work and plenty of space to store the data. This will cost a lot of money to get a decent laptop to do this work and cost more for the licenses for the software. This would be ideal for a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). A VDI is a virtual computer that runs on a server on the internet. You can access this from anywhere as long as you have a device with an internet connection. The VDI will have all the applications you would require to work and access to all the data you need (such as worker shared drives). This can be accessed on a cheap laptop that has WiFi capabilities. The VDI would be what you would do your work on, essentially becoming your office desktop. All that work can be easily accessed from you clients site or from home.
2. Can be used effectively in the office In an office that utilizes the traditional IT model (i.e. desktop computers, servers e.t.c) a lot of money is spent on running and maintaining the IT systems. Everyone would require a PC and you would also require multiple servers to run services (in a large office this can cost a lot on the electricity bill). Your IT support costs would also be high. Desktops have a life span of 3 years, meaning that plenty of money will need to be spent to replace them every couple of years an even more to roll out new applications a software to the desktops. If you have multiple branches then you will also require VPN’s to be setup so that all the works are connected to each other and have access to the data they need. Adoption of cloud technology can change this. Instead of using traditional desktops you would use a ThinClient (an 8th of the size of a standard PC). This would be used to access your VDI. The great thing about the ThinClient is that it has far less parts inside it than a desktop. With few parts its uses less electricity and its life span increases to 5 years. This takes a good chunk out of the cost for the electricity bill and maintained costs. All servers can be moved to the cloud as virtual servers. This would free up space and take away the cost of running and maintaining server rooms. With all your works running on VDI’s they would be able to access the same data. The VDI’s would be setup on the same network. This would mean that works all around the country would have access to the same network drives. The centralization of the VDI’s also makes it easier for IT support to access the VDI’s and fix them. An IT Technician can monitor, control and remotely access the VDI’s in seconds. From a central management console they can roll out updates and applications in minutes, compared to a technician going round each PC in the office and installing software on each individual computer. By doing this, it means that down time of the office computer is greatly reduced. Meaning less money is lost to maintenance
3. Securely store data in an easy to access place Accountants have to handle their client’s most sensitive data. With the rise of cyber crime this data should be made very secure because if the data fell into the wrong hands it could cripple the company. However, securing it can make it harder for those who need to access it. Having it on the cloud can tailor for both worlds. Cloud servers are typically stored with the IT technicians; giving them direct access to the server should anything go wrong. The data would be backed up and secured on encrypted servers at the data centre (protecting it from cyber criminals and other hazards) but at the same time would allow the people who need access to it easy access. You would be able to access the data remotely as long as you know the passwords and have the permissions to view the files. This allows the accountant to do their work whilst keeping out the unwanted.
4. Thank you for reading.