The Joy of SOX: Why Sarbanes-Oxley and Services Oriented Architecture May Be the Best Thing That Ever Happened to You

by Hugh Taylor

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was passed in 2002 in response to a series of high-profile corporate scandals and requires that public companies implement internal controls over financial reporting, operations, and assets; these controls depend heavily on installing or improving information technology and business methods Written by one of the most visible personalities on the tech-biz side of the SOX discussion, this highly readable, engaging book provides a clear road map for integrating SOX compliance into the fabric of everyday IT infrastructure and business practice Shows the reader how to leverage and use service-oriented architecture (SOA), a set of technologies that enables interoperation of heterogeneous computer systems, to achieve the level of internal controls over IT that SOX mandates

Genres: Business

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Hugh Taylor is Executive Editor of The Journal of Cyber Policy, a cybersecurity industry blog. He has been working in the enterprise technology and cybersecurity fields for over 20 years, earning the Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) credential in the process. His previous books include The Joy of SOX (Wiley) about IT and the Sarbanes Oxley Act, and Event Driven Architecture (Prentice-Hall). After serving in executive roles at venture-backed startups and global tech giants like IBM and Microsoft, he now works as a freelance tech writer. His professional writing spans technology and cybersecurity for a clientele that includes HPE, IBM, Google, Microsoft and SAP. Prior to working in technology, Taylor served in script development roles in primetime television-an experience that gives him insights into the relationship between technology, society and the media.

Reviews

[Louise L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book because it explains the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) by way of a case study of a fictitious company, DexCo, that is struggling to manage both its day-to-day operations and its corporate compliance obligations. The company is staffed by realistic people, in typical management roles, that are described in terms of how they are impacted by SOX, and how they eventually come to better understand SOX and then use that understanding to help shape DexCo's SOX implementation so that SOX is ultimately a benefit and not a burden. This book is NOT the SOX Act in paperback form, instead this an introduction to SOX from a realistic business perspective. It explains that SOX is much more than just a check-list, and that it can be used as a vehicle to improve a business in a whole variety of different ways. I would say that this is the sort of book that the senior management team would read before calling in the SOX consultants. It gives you a useful taste, and paints the complete picture of SOX without getting bogged down in all the fine details, which will, of course, be of different importance to each and every company that implements it.