亚马逊移动拓展再发力

    听好了！亚马逊（Amazon）网络服务现在启动了一个移动应用程序项目。该公司的一则招聘信息显示，亚马逊网络服务正在为该部门一个新的iOS/Android项目物色软件开发工程师，工作地点在加州帕洛阿尔托。

    这则招聘广告称，理想的候选人应该开发过“排名前25”的应用程序，并愿意“从零开始”，打造一款全新服务。

    广告还写道：“招聘职位负责开发、控制世界一流的产品——适用于iOS和Android等主流平板电脑和网络客户端应用。应聘者必须愿意坚持最高的质量、可维护性和性能标准，确保遵循工程学最佳实践，确保软件反应迅速、可靠，并具有可维护性。”

    TechCrunch最早于上周日晚报道了此事。

    开发者通常从自己的个人电脑接入亚马逊网络服务，但智能手机和平板电脑正迅速取代笔记本和台式机，成为更多人的首选设备，因此亚马逊将关注投向移动设备乃明智之举。同时，亚马逊网络服务管理控制台还开始支持Android和iOS，以便用户能通过更多设备查看、设置服务。

    移动后端即服务（Mobile-Backend-as-a-Service）供应商Kii公司平台营销高级副总裁米克•松树表示，这则招聘广告说到的是客户端应用开发，而不是软件开发工具包，因此不会同Kii的产品形成直接竞争。但也有可能亚马逊网络服务将打造自己的视频管理服务，GigaOM Pro分析师简纳基兰姆•MSV数周前就在一篇博文（需订阅才能阅读）中提出了这一假设。据MSV称：

    “亚马逊网络服务部门要提供移动后端服务可谓万事俱备。亚马逊云计算平台EC2、亚马逊简易存储服务S3、亚马逊DynamoDB云端服务以及亚马逊关系数据库服务RDS已经成为众多移动应用程序的基础。支持Android和iOS的亚马逊网络服务软件开发工具包将帮助开发者们更轻松地使用这些服务。”

    通用型平台即服务（PaaSes）忽略了移动细分市场，而Kinvey、Parse、Stackmob以及Kii等新创企业迅速填补了这个空白。现在，规模较大的平台即服务公司正在增加更多的移动性能，去年夏天微软（Microsoft）为Windows Azure添加移动服务即是一例。移动后端即服务的支持者称这些努力缺乏力度，而且为时已晚，但很多人认为这将引发移动子市场剧烈动荡。

    位于马萨诸塞州坎布里奇的Kinvey公司首席执行官斯拉维希•斯瑞达在看过该招聘广告后表示，亚马逊网络服务部门招聘前端开发人员并不奇怪。但他补充说，科技网站GigaOM Pro关于亚马逊网络服务部门进军移动后端服务的报道完全正确。斯瑞达指出：“如果亚马逊网络服务打算推出移动后端即服务产品，他们需要经验丰富的前端开发人员。因为要吸引后端人才，必须打造顶级的客户端库。对移动开发人员而言，客户端库就如同应用程序界面。”

    斯瑞达还表示，亚马逊肯定应增加移动后端服务，因为他看到移动“正推动亚马逊采用云技术。亚马逊网络服务部门很可能也看到了这点，并意识到自己需要完善移动云产品，以使‘企业移动载荷’（ 改述Vmware的术语）在亚马逊网络服务上顺畅运行。”

    如果亚马逊回复我的置评请求，我会及时更新。

    译者：项航

    Hold the phone! Amazon Web Services is launching a mobile applications initiative. According to a company job post, AWS seeks a software development engineer for a new iOS/Android AWS initiative to be based in Palo Alto, Calif.

    The ideal candidate will have built a “top 25 app” and want to build a “brand new service from the ground floor”, according to the job post.

    It continued:

    “In this role, you will be responsible for creating and owning world-class production tablet and web client applications across major platforms including iOS and Android . You must be willing to insist on the highest standards for quality, maintainability, and performance. You will ensure that engineering best practices are followed and that software is designed to be responsive, reliable and maintainable.”

    TechCrunch first reported the news Sunday night.

    Developers typically access AWS from their PCs, but smartphones and tablets are quickly supplanting laptops and PCs as devices of choice for more workers, so it would make sense for AWS to turn more attention to those form factors. And, the company added Android and iOS support to the AWS management console so users can keep an eye on their services from their device of choice.

    Miko Matsumura, SVP of platform marketing for Kii, a Mobile-Backend-as-a-Service (MBaaS) provider, said this post talks about client app development rather than a software development kit so would not be directly competitive with what Kii does. But it is also possible that AWS will build its own MVaaS — something that GigaOM Pro analyst Janakiram MSV posited in a post (subscription required) a few weeks ago. According to MSV:

    “AWS has all the required building blocks to expose mobile backend services. Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon DynamoDB, and Amazon RDS already form the backbone of many mobile applications today. The AWS SDK for Android and iOS makes it easy for developers to consume these services.”

    General purpose Platforms as a Service (PaaSes) neglected this mobile segment — so startups like Kinvey, Parse, Stackmob, and Kii rushed to fill the void. Now, the bigger PaaS players are adding more mobile capabilities — witness Microsoft’s addition of mobile services to Windows Azure last summer. MBaaS partisans claim it’s too little too late, but others predict a shakeout in this segment.

    Sravish Sridhar, CEO of Cambridge, Mass.-based Kinvey, who looked at the ad, said the fact that AWS is looking for front-end developers is not a huge surprise but added that the GigaOM Pro report about AWS moving into mobile backend services was spot on. “If AWS is looking to launch a Backend as a Service offering, they need seasoned front-end developers because, you need to build world-class client-side libraries to abstract the backend stack. For mobile developers, the client-side library is the new API,” he noted.

    He also said that it’s a no-brainer for Amazon to add more mobile backend services this since he sees mobile “driving the adoption of cloud in the enterprise. It’s likely that AWS has seen this as well and has realized that it needs to improve its mobile cloud offering to get ‘corporate mobile payloads’ (to paraphrase VMware’s term) to run on AWS.”

    I will update this story if and when Amazon responds to requests for comment.