微軟將在未來加大雲服務攻勢

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says the cloud is vital to his company’s future.

微軟公司（Microsoft）首席執行官薩蒂亞o納德拉表示，雲對微軟的未來至關重要。

“We want to empower every individual and every organization to thrive,” Nadella said at an event in San Francisco on Monday.

週一他在舊金山一個活動現場表示：“我們希望讓每個人和每個機構都能發展壯大。”

It’s a message that he hopes potential business clients will take to heart as he tries to lift Microsoft’s fortunes after a year of upheaval during which he replaced longtime leader Steve Ballmer. His company is under attack like never been before from rivals like Google and Apple along with an array of companies focused on corporations.

微軟去年經歷了主帥更替的動盪期，長期領導者史蒂夫o鮑爾默離任，納德拉接手。這位新任CEO一直嘗試着改善這家科技巨頭的境遇。這番話正是他希望潛在商業客戶銘記於心的訊息。目前，微軟不僅經受着來自谷歌公司（Google）、蘋果公司（Apple）這類對手前所未有的攻擊，還遭到衆多致力於拓展企業業務的公司的圍堵。

Nadella emphasized again and again that Microsoft wants business customers, small and large, to use its data centers for storing digital files, housing software and crunching numbers. To hammer the message home, Nadella name-dropped companies already using Microsoft’s cloud already.

納德拉一再強調，微軟希望大大小小的商業用戶都能使用該公司的數據中心存儲數字文件、內部軟件並處理數據。爲了把這個想法說明白，納德拉特意列舉了已經採用微軟雲的大公司以壯聲勢：

There’s NBC, which uses Microsoft’s cloud services to live-stream video. Fashion retailer Paul Smith relies on Microsoft’s data centers to back up its digital files. Meanwhile, German elevator-maker ThyssenKrupp stores data from 1.1 million elevators like speed and motor temperatures in Microsoft’s server farms.

比如，全國廣播公司（NBC）就將微軟雲服務用於流媒體視頻。時尚品牌零售商Paul Smith靠着微軟的數據中心來備份其數字文件。同時，德國電梯業巨頭蒂森克虜伯公司（ThyssenKrupp）則將110萬臺電梯的速度、電機溫度等數據存儲於微軟的服務器羣組。

In an effort to show how useful its cloud services can be in a global crisis, Nadella said Microsoft would make its cloud services available to medical researchers tackling the Ebola epidemic, as well as research capable of helping with discovering a vaccine. Nadella did not say whether Microsoft would charge for the services.

爲了表明微軟雲服務在一場全球性危機中能夠發揮多大的作用，納德拉稱，微軟將讓正向攻克埃博拉病毒的醫藥研究人員提供雲服務，以及那些有助於發現疫苗的研究。不過，他並沒有說明微軟是否會對這些服務收費。

Microsoft MSFT 1.03% peddled “The Cloud” long before Nadella became CEO nearly eight months ago. Although Microsoft still dominates software sales in the declining PC business with a 90%-plus market share, it only has a 14% share among mobile devices, Nadella said at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in July.

早在納德拉近8個月前出任首席執行官之前，微軟就一直在兜售自己的“雲”。在7月份的《財富》科技頭腦風暴大會(Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech )上，納德拉稱，在當前不斷下滑的PC行業中，儘管微軟仍以90%以上的市場份額佔據軟件行業的主導地位，但在移動設備領域。其市場份額僅有14%。

Considering how far behind it is in mobile, Microsoft is trying to aggressively grow its pure business services. It’s an area in which the company has always done well and faces less competitoin from the likes of Google and Apple, which dominate the consumer space.

正是鑑於該公司在移動領域處於非常被動的地位，微軟纔要大力推動其純商業服務的發展。這是微軟長期以來一直業績出衆的專屬領域，並且很少遭遇谷歌和蘋果這類稱霸消費領域對手的侵蝕。

In the four years since introducing Azure, its main cloud platform, Microsoft has been fiercely battling Amazon AMZN 0.85% and its cloud service, Amazon Web Services, on features and pricing. Indeed, Microsoft introduced more than 300 new features to its service over the past 12 months alone.

在推出其主要雲平臺Azure之後的4年中，微軟一直都在和亞馬遜公司（Amazon）及其雲服務“亞馬遜網絡服務”（Amazon Web Services）在性能和價格上激烈競爭。實際上，僅過去12個月以來，微軟就在其服務中推出了超過300種新功能。

On Monday, Microsoft showed off yet more new services that are meant to undercut the competition. Those included a faster kind of “virtual machine,” or simulated computer system, dubbed the “G family,” with twice the memory of Amazon’s virtual machines and four times the memory of Google’s GOOG 1.89% .

週一，微軟展示了更多旨在削弱對手的新服務，其中包括一種被戲稱爲“G家族”（G family）、速度更快的“虛擬機”，或稱模擬機系統，其存儲容量是亞馬遜虛擬機的兩倍，谷歌虛擬機的四倍。

This year may prove to be a watershed for Microsoft. Its cloud business currently generates $4.4 billion in annual revenues. But Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund estimated in August the company will become the largest cloud business by the end of the year with around $5.8 billion in annual revenues. By contrast, Amazon Web Services and would make $5.5 billion, he said. And even if Microsoft doesn’t hit those numbers, it has more cash to burn — $77 billion — which it can funnel into its cloud products, if needed. Promised Nadella: “This is just the start.”

今年可能會是微軟的分水嶺。其雲業務目前的年收入爲44億美元。但野村證券（Nomura）分析師裏克o薛倫8月預測稱，今年年底微軟就將以約58億美元的年收入成爲規模最大的雲企業。他說，相比而言，“亞馬遜網絡服務”和兩者的收入總和爲55億美元。就算微軟沒有達到這個數字，它也有更多現金可燒——高達770億美元。如果需要，這些錢將投入到其雲產品中。正如納德拉所承諾的：“這纔剛剛開始。”