Autodesk 2011 Annual Report Download - page 91

We rely on third-parties to provide us with a number of operational services, including hosting and delivery,
certain of our customer services operations as well as some of our operations; any interruption or delay in
service from these third parties, breaches of security or privacy, or failures in data collection could expose us
to liability, harm our reputation and adversely impact our financial performance.
We rely on hosted computer services from third parties for services that we provide our customers and
computer operations for our internal use. As we gather customer data and host certain customer data in third-
party facilities, a security breach could compromise the integrity or availability of customer data. In addition, our
operations could be negatively affected in the event of a security breach, and we could be subject to the loss or
theft of confidential or proprietary information, including source code. Unauthorized access to this data may be
obtained through break-ins, breach of our secure network by an unauthorized party, employee theft or misuse, or
other misconduct. We rely on a number of third party suppliers in the operation of our business for the provision
of various services and materials that we use in the operation of our business and production of our products.
Although we seek to diversify our third party suppliers, we may from time to time rely on a single or limited
number of suppliers, or upon suppliers in a single country, for these services or materials. The inability of such
third parties to satisfy our requirements could disrupt our business operations or make it more difficult for us to
implement our business strategy. If any of these situations were to occur, our reputation could be harmed, we
could be subject to third party liability, including under data protection and privacy laws in certain jurisdictions,
and our financial performance could be negatively impacted.
We regularly invest resources to update and improve our internal information technology systems. Should our
investments not succeed, or if delays or other issues with new or existing internal technology systems disrupt
our operations, our business could be harmed.
We rely on our network and data center infrastructure, internal technology systems and our websites for our
development, marketing, operational, support, sales, accounting and financial reporting activities. We are
continually investing resources to update and improve these systems and environments in order to meet the
growing requirements of our business and customers. Such improvements are often complex, costly and time
consuming. In addition, such improvements can be challenging to integrate with our existing technology systems,
or uncover problems with our existing technology systems. Unsuccessful implementation of hardware or
software updates and improvements could result in disruption in our business operations, loss of revenue, errors
in our accounting and financial reporting or damage to our reputation.
Our business may be significantly disrupted upon the occurrence of a catastrophic event.
Our business is highly automated and relies extensively on the availability of our network and data center
infrastructure, our internal technology systems and our websites. We also rely on hosted computer services from
third parties for services that we provide to our customers and computer operations for our internal use. The
failure of our systems or hosted computer services due to a catastrophic event, such as an earthquake, fire, flood,
weather event, telecommunications failure, power failure, cyber attack or war, could adversely impact our
business, financial results and financial condition. We have developed disaster recovery plans and maintain
backup systems in order to reduce the potential impact of a catastrophic event, however there can be no assurance
that these plans and systems would enable us to return to normal business operations.
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
We have received no written comments regarding our periodic or current reports from the staff of the SEC
that were issued 180 days or more preceding the end of our 2011 fiscal year that remain unresolved.
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
We lease 1,883,000 square feet of office space in 106 locations in the United States and internationally
through our foreign subsidiaries. In addition, we own 25,000 square feet of office space in two locations
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