Auditing in the Cloud: Challenges and Opportunities

Christina A. Nicolaou, MAcc, and Andreas I. Nicolaou, PhD, and George D. Nicolaou

Recent advances in data storage, communication, and information processing technologies have enabled many companies to utilize business processes that are being supported by IT-enabled applications. This is even truer with the widespread use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, such SAP and Oracle, which have now become part of the standard vocabulary of almost every controller, operating officer, and auditor. With such widespread use of IT in business organizations, typical business applications of the past can now be handled by emergent and more sophisticated technology solutions. Many companies now see a tremendous increase in their capital budgets for IT, which always raises questions on the return of these investments and to what extent emerging and innovative solutions can free up much-needed capital resources.