科技公司摩拳擦掌，“云戰爭”硝煙四起

????為了免去管理數據中心的麻煩，許多公司把這一任務交給了亞馬遜（Amazon）。而亞馬遜不僅是最大的網絡零售商，還創立了龐大的服務器租賃業務，供那些需要計算能力來分析數據、播放電影和處理訂單的客戶使用。

????但亞馬遜領先的所謂“云服務平臺”，正在面臨著日益嚴峻的挑戰。在這個科技行業最大巨頭之間的核心戰場上，微軟（Microsoft）等競爭對手正在逐漸發展壯大。

????弗雷斯特研究公司（Forrester Research）的分析師詹姆斯?斯塔頓稱：“云平臺是現代軟件公司都會選擇的服務，這意味著所有在應用開發和發布上占據重大份額的大公司都會進入這個領域。他們別無選擇?！?/p>

????弗雷斯特的詹姆斯?斯塔頓表示，2013年亞馬遜的數據中心Web Services占據了全球云平臺市場75%的份額。不過到今年年底，這一比例預計將跌至65%。

????與此同時，在這場競爭中遠遠落后的第二名——微軟Azure云平臺——在2013年的份額為15%。但到今年年底，這一比例預計將增至25%。

????云計算依舊有很大的潛力。研究公司IHS Technology的數據顯示，到2017年，各公司在該領域的花費可能高達2,350億美元，是2011年的三倍多。因此也難怪微軟、谷歌（Google）、Salesforce、SAP和甲骨文（Oracle）都著眼于該領域來填補市場需求。

????Amazon Web Services創立于2006年，他們很早就在建立數據中心，供其他公司儲存和處理數據。如今據估計，該數據中心今年收入約為55億美元，擁有包括美國國家航空航天局（NASA）、奈飛（Netflix）和Spotify在內的超過100萬客戶。

????上周在拉斯維加斯舉辦的云平臺年度會議上，Amazon Web Services推出了簡化軟件開發、并使開發成本更為低廉的工具。在會上，公司的高級副總裁安迪?雅西表示：“云就是新常態?！?/p>

????早在薩提亞?納德拉在2月擔任首席執行官之前很久，微軟就開始邁入所謂的“云”領域。但正是納德拉將“云”擺在了公司的戰略中心。

????招攬數據客戶對微軟而言至關重要。該公司在出售個人電腦軟件方面取得了巨大成功，但在人們將注意力轉向移動設備后便步履蹣跚了。微軟賭的就是Azure這樣的商業服務會成為公司未來的重要產品。

????微軟試圖通過低價和迅速推出新功能這兩項戰略拉近差距。弗雷斯特研究公司的分析師杰弗里?哈蒙德表示，對缺乏技術經驗的新用戶而言，Azure更易于上手。

????哈蒙德說：“我認為開發商經常會有這種感覺：選擇倒是很多，但究竟哪種最好并不總是那么明顯?！?/p>

????Amazon Web Services平臺目前依舊為Spotify、Airbnb和Pinterest等初創公司所青睞。而Azure則更多地被Xerox、eBay和McKesson等大型公司選擇。（據斯塔頓所說，越來越多的初創公司也開始使用Azure，不過在很多情況中，這些初創公司本身就有使用微軟產品的經歷。）這兩大平臺都需要完善他們的服務，以取得更進一步的增長。

????微軟的營銷策略是讓云平臺比亞馬遜的更加靈活。傳統的亞馬遜平臺會儲存并處理客戶的絕大部分信息。而微軟正好相反，采用了“混合云”策略，客戶可以在微軟的服務器上儲存和處理部分數據，而另一部分數據則放在自己的服務器上。對那些希望擁有更多數據自主權，同時也想享受云服務便利的用戶而言，這很有吸引力。

????微軟的“混合云”策略會帶來更大效益，至少在不遠的將來會是這樣。高德納研究公司（Gartner）預測，到2017年，美國幾乎半數大型企業都會建立起類似混合云的產品。甚至連亞馬遜都意識到了這其中的吸引力。今年早些時候，亞馬遜的首席技術官沃納?沃格爾表示，如果客戶有需求，公司將會提供工具幫助他們架設混合云服務器。

????哈蒙德把這種云服務的趨勢比作互聯網的興起：“我們最終在這里看見的將會是巨變?！?/p>

????對Amazon Web Services、Azure和其他競爭云平臺市場的公司來說，這一趨勢預示著什么，他們早已了然：競爭開始了。（財富中文網）

????譯者：嚴匡正

????To avoid the hassle of operating data centers, many companies hand the job off to Amazon. In addition to being the biggest online retailer, Amazon has built a giant business of renting servers to customers that need computing power to crunch numbers, stream movies and process orders.

????But Amazon, the leading so-called “cloud services platform,” faces an increasingly stiff challenge. Rivals like Microsoft are slowly gaining ground in what is a key battleground between some of the technology industry’s biggest companies.

????“Cloud platforms are the service of choice for modern software, which means that all the big businesses who have a significant stake in app development or distribution are getting into this space. They have to,” says James Staten, a Forrester Research analyst.

????Amazon’s Web Services, the name of its data center arm, controlled up to 75% of the global cloud platforms market in 2013, according to Forrester Research analyst James Staten. But that share is expected to drop to around 65% by the end of this year.

????Meanwhile, Microsoft, a distant second in the race with what is known as Azure, had 15% of the market in 2013. That share is expected to climb to 25% by the end of the year.

????The potential for cloud computing remains huge. Corporations could spend as much as $235 billion on it in 2017, more than triple the amount they spent in 2011, according to IHS Technology. It’s no wonder then companies like Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, SAP and Oracle are ramping up efforts to meet demand.

????Created in 2006, Amazon Web Services gambled early on the idea of building data centers that stored and processed information for other businesses. Now that data center division, which is estimated to generate around $5.5 billion in revenues this year, has over 1 million customers like NASA, Netflix NFLX -0.03% and Spotify.

????“The cloud is the new normal,” boasted Andy Jassy, Amazon Web Services SVP, at the cloud platform’s annual conference in Las Vegas last week where the company unveiled tools to make software development easier and cheaper.

????Microsoft MSFT -0.83% pushed into the so-called “cloud” long before Satya Nadella became CEO in February. But it was Nadella who championed a more cloud-focused strategy inside the company.

????Signing up data customers is critical for Microsoft, which has had huge success in selling software for personal computers but has stumbled as people have shifted to mobile devices. The company is betting that business services like Azure are a big part of its future.

????Microsoft is trying to close the gap through lower prices and by rapidly introducing new features. Jeffrey Hammond, a Forrester Research analyst, said that Azure is easier to learn for new customers that lack technical experience.

????“I think that’s often how developers feel,” Hammond says. “There are a lot of different choices, and it’s not always clear what the best thing to do is.”

????Still, Amazon Web Services remains the platform of choice for startups such as Spotify, Airbnb and Pinterest. Azure, meanwhile, is more popular with larger companies such as Xerox XRX 1.04% , eBay EBAY 1.01% and McKesson. (According to Staten, more startups are starting to use Azure, but in many of those cases, the startup has some prior history with Microsoft.) Both platforms must round out their services more to fuel growth.

????Microsoft is marketing its cloud as being more flexible than Amazon’s. Traditionally, Amazon’s servers hosted and processed the vast majority of their customers’ information. Microsoft, in contrast, uses a more “hybrid” approach in which customers can store and process some of their data with Microsoft while doing the rest on their own servers. That’s appealing to customers that want more ownership over their information but still want some of the cloud’s benefits.

????Microsoft’s “hybrid” approach could prove more lucrative, at least in the near-future. By 2017, Gartner estimates that nearly 50% of all large enterprises in the U.S. will run off some kind of hybrid cloud set-up. Even Amazon gets the appeal. Earlier this year, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels said his company would offer some tools to help customers go hybrid if that is what they want.

????“What we’re ultimately seeing here is huge change,” says Hammond, comparing the move to cloud services to the rise of the Web.

????For Amazon Web Services, Azure and others battling for the cloud platform market, the trend signals something they already know: Game on.