微软加大云服务攻势

    微软公司（Microsoft）首席执行官萨蒂亚•纳德拉表示，云对微软的未来至关重要。

    周一他在旧金山一个活动现场表示：“我们希望让每个人和每个机构都能发展壮大。”

    微软去年经历了主帅更替的动荡期，长期领导者史蒂夫•鲍尔默离任，纳德拉接手。这位新任CEO一直尝试着改善这家科技巨头的境遇。这番话正是他希望潜在商业客户铭记于心的讯息。目前，微软不仅经受着来自谷歌公司（Google）、苹果公司（Apple）这类对手前所未有的攻击，还遭到众多致力于拓展企业业务的公司的围堵。

    纳德拉一再强调，微软希望大大小小的商业用户都能使用该公司的数据中心存储数字文件、内部软件并处理数据。为了把这个想法说明白，纳德拉特意列举了已经采用微软云的大公司以壮声势：

    比如，全国广播公司（NBC）就将微软云服务用于流媒体视频。时尚品牌零售商Paul Smith靠着微软的数据中心来备份其数字文件。同时，德国电梯业巨头蒂森克虏伯公司（ThyssenKrupp）则将110万台电梯的速度、电机温度等数据存储于微软的服务器群组。

    为了表明微软云服务在一场全球性危机中能够发挥多大的作用，纳德拉称，微软将让正向攻克埃博拉病毒的医药研究人员提供云服务，以及那些有助于发现疫苗的研究。不过，他并没有说明微软是否会对这些服务收费。

    早在纳德拉近8个月前出任首席执行官之前，微软就一直在兜售自己的“云”。在7月份的《财富》科技头脑风暴大会(Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech )上，纳德拉称，在当前不断下滑的PC行业中，尽管微软仍以90%以上的市场份额占据软件行业的主导地位，但在移动设备领域。其市场份额仅有14%。

    正是鉴于该公司在移动领域处于非常被动的地位，微软才要大力推动其纯商业服务的发展。这是微软长期以来一直业绩出众的专属领域，并且很少遭遇谷歌和苹果这类称霸消费领域对手的侵蚀。

    在推出其主要云平台Azure之后的4年中，微软一直都在和亚马逊公司（Amazon）及其云服务“亚马逊网络服务”（Amazon Web Services）在性能和价格上激烈竞争。实际上，仅过去12个月以来，微软就在其服务中推出了超过300种新功能。

    周一，微软展示了更多旨在削弱对手的新服务，其中包括一种被戏称为“G家族”（G family）、速度更快的“虚拟机”，或称模拟机系统，其存储容量是亚马逊虚拟机的两倍，谷歌虚拟机的四倍。

    今年可能会是微软的分水岭。其云业务目前的年收入为44亿美元。但野村证券（Nomura）分析师里克•薛伦8月预测称，今年年底微软就将以约58亿美元的年收入成为规模最大的云企业。他说，相比而言，“亚马逊网络服务”和Salesforce.com两者的收入总和为55亿美元。就算微软没有达到这个数字，它也有更多现金可烧——高达770亿美元。如果需要，这些钱将投入到其云产品中。正如纳德拉所承诺的：“这才刚刚开始。”（财富中文网）

    译者：清远

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

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

    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.

    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.

    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.

    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.

    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.

    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.

    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.

    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% .

    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 Salesforce.com 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.”