Financial Applications in the Cloud

Although the cloud has swept the wave of IT systems in recent years, the core financial applications that companies depend on for their meat and potatoes reports and that contain a lot of their most sensitive data from a competitive viewpoint have been slow to move to the cloud. The reason seems to be heavily based on security concerns. The fact is, sometimes security in the cloud can be better than security in conventional corporate systems, but top management is not always aware of this. In fairness, the quality of security does vary.

Another main reason companies cite for not moving their core financial applications to the cloud is the compliance burden, which is related to the security issue but broader.

Large vendors like Oracle and SAP are not deterred by the reluctance shown to date. Both have introduced cloud ready offerings recently, including Oracle Fusion Financials and SAP Financials on Demand. They obviously feel that the concerns can be met. This article explains.