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云計算遭遇會計難題,巨頭IBM首當其沖

云計算遭遇會計難題,巨頭IBM首當其沖

Michal Lev-Ram 2013-08-12
據報道,美國證券交易委員會正在就IBM的云計算業務展開調查。基于云計算的工具一般通過長期合同進行支付,而且不少公司還將云計算工具與傳統計算產品捆綁銷售,因此,涉及云計算業務的會計計算十分復雜。如果不能實現云計算會計準則的標準化,類似這樣的調查可能會越來越多。

????據有關媒體上周報道,美國證券交易委員會(SEC)正對IBM的云計算營收進行調查。消息一經披露,大家議論紛紛。總部位于紐約的科技巨頭IBM承認,早在今年5月,公司就已經開始配合美國證交會進行相關的調查,但IBM拒絕透露進一步細節。不過,有一點很明確:軟件即服務這類產品的會計計算方法歷來存在爭議,因此,此次調查絕不是最后一次。

????云計算本身沒有問題——問題出在其包裝和銷售方式。與傳統內部部署軟件不同,基于云計算的工具一般通過長期合同進行支付。客戶可以每月支付費用,意味著公司的收益也是長期性的,結果導致會計計算非常麻煩,因為整個收益期會橫跨多年(而且有些客戶還可能中途終止合同)。對于大公司,情況將變得更加復雜,因為它們通常把云計算和非云計算產品捆綁銷售。

????祖睿科技(Zuora)首席執行官左軒霆說:“會計準則是在我們進行傳統商品交易時誕生的。當我們從制造業經濟向服務業經濟轉型時,情況變得十分復雜。”祖睿科技是一家計費平臺軟件開發商,產品被多家云計算公司使用。

????IBM可謂云計算轉型的典型。過去幾年,這家公司一直在努力從硬件和內部部署軟件提供商轉型成云計算和服務供應商。為了擴張云計算實力,IBM進行了多項收購,其中包括最近以20億美元收購“公有云”租賃公司SoftLayer Technologies。

????市場調研公司Cowen & Co分析師皮特?戈德馬徹說:“任何時候把兩家公司放在一起,自然會發現它們的會計計算方法有些許不同。因為兩家公司的經營策略不同,營收模式也不一樣。而把不同的分銷模式和會計計算方法整合到一起時,情形會更加撲朔迷離。”

????不過,這并不是IBM、甲骨文(Oracle)、SAP等在云計算領域大肆并購的公司所面臨的唯一問題。銷售傭金的計算也變得非常復雜。傳統軟件銷售人員通過銷售一次性軟件而獲得數量不菲的傭金。隨著所謂傳統公司向更先進、更有增長潛力的云計算業務演進,究竟如何計算這些產品的銷售額目前來看仍是云里霧里。因為云計算產品通常會和非云計算產品捆綁銷售。例如,IBM此前宣布,與云計算相關的業務在2013年上半年同比增長了70%。但它并未提供任何銷售數據,因為IBM自己也不知道之前和當下的云計算營收到底有多少。

????投資者可能需要一段時間才能了解這些大型科技公司到底從云計算業務中賺到了多少以及它們所進行的云計算并購的整合情況。即便是云計算巨頭亞馬遜(Amazon)目前也未被要求細化披露云計算產品“亞馬遜網絡服務”的營收情況。Cowen & Co的戈德馬徹稱,投資者應冷靜看待這些基于訂閱的營收,無論其長期收益流看起來多具吸引力。“……我們擔心,投資者被這種模式迷惑了。因為無論損益表還是資產負債表,都是反應真實業務狀況的滯后指標。”戈德馬徹在最近的報告中寫道。但他也在隨后注明,即便美國證交會有理由展開調查,但云計算不大可能存在非法交易。戈德馬徹說:“我的看法是,情況確實相當復雜。而情況越復雜,人們就越容易出錯。”

????換句話說,除非云計算業務發展得足夠龐大,以至于需要增加透明度,同時各類大小企業對“基于訂閱的產品”的會計計算更加標準化,否則,未來有關云計算的這類錯誤(以及美國證交會的調查)很可能將層出不窮。(財富中文網)

????譯者:項航??

????Last week's disclosure that the Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting an investigation into how IBM reports its cloud computing revenue poses more questions than answers. The New York-based tech giant admitted it has been cooperating with the SEC since last May but said little else about the particulars of the case. One thing is clear: It's likely this won't be the last probe into the often inconsistent methods used to account for software-as-a-service products.

????The cloud itself isn't the problem -- it's the way it happens to be packaged and sold. Unlike traditional, on-premise software, cloud-based tools are usually paid for via multi-year contracts. Customers are charged a monthly subscription fee, which means a recurring revenue stream that can be tricky to account for because it spans the course of several years (and because, sometimes, customers back out of contracts). This gets especially complicated at large companies that lump cloud-computing sales in with non-cloud products.

????"Accounting rules were written when we were all trading goods with each other," says Tien Tzuo, CEO of Zuora, a billing platform used by many cloud computing companies. "As we move away from a manufacturing economy to a service economy it gets pretty complex."

????IBM (IBM) may be a good example of this phenomenon. Over the past few years, the company has been shifting from its roots as a hardware and on-premise software vendor, toward a future as a cloud and services purveyor. To that end, it's made several acquisitions, including a recent $2 billion bid to acquire SoftLayer Technologies, which rents out computing power to customers.

????"Any time you put two companies together, it's reasonable to expect that they will have slightly different accounting practices," says Cowen & Co. analyst Peter Goldmacher. "These are different companies with different policies and different revenue models. You've got an involved situation made complicated by taking different delivery models and accounting practices and putting them together."

????That's not the only problem for companies like IBM -- and Oracle (ORCL) and SAP (SAP) -- that have made acquisitions in the cloud computing space. This clash of cultures also complicates commissions, because salespeople used to selling traditional software are used to collecting a hefty, one-time check for every deal they close. And while embracing these new, high-growth technologies are a necessary evolution for so-called legacy companies, it's not clear just how much money they're actually making from the cloud because these fledgling businesses are often bundled with other, non-cloud products. IBM, for example, has said its cloud computing business was up 70% during the first half of this year. But it hasn't given any frame of reference because it doesn't actually break out what those revenues used to be or are currently.

????It will likely be a while before investors can tell exactly what these large tech companies are making from these new businesses and how well they're folding in their cloud-based acquisitions. Even cloud heavyweight Amazon.com (AMZN) isn't yet required to break out revenue from its growing cloud computing products, Amazon Web Services. According to Cowen & Co.'s Goldmacher, investors should pause before becoming too enamored with subscription-based revenue, however attractive a recurring revenue stream may seem: "... we are concerned that investors are taking false comfort in these models because the income statement and balance sheet can be lagging indicators on the real trajectory of the business," he wrote in a recent report. But Goldmacher is also quick to note that it's unlikely anything nefarious is going on, even if the SEC has reason to launch an investigation. "My belief is that this is just really complicated," says Goldmacher. "The more complicated an undertaking the more likely you are to make a mistake."

????In other words, until these new cloud-computing businesses get large enough to require more transparency -- and until accounting practices for subscription-based products become more standardized at all tech companies, large and small- -- it's likely there are plenty more mistakes (and SEC investigations) ahead.

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