亚马逊云计算业务的前景如何？

    2006年，亚马逊网络服务（Amazon Web Services）一经诞生就受到了广泛的质疑。大家都在想，这个在线零售巨头试水网络基础架构领域，究竟意欲何为？

    这些服务就是后来广为人知的“云计算”，此举最初让亚马逊公司内部的某些人感到疑惑不解。亚马逊网络服务产品管理与开发者关系副总裁亚当•塞利普斯基回忆道：“这是一个深思熟虑的决定。”不过这项脱胎于一份2004年的研究报告的业务还是说服了很多人，包括亚马逊的CEO杰夫•贝索斯。正如塞利普斯基所说的那样，大多数开发者把70%的工作时间花在安装服务器和管理数据库这样的任务上，而花在核心业务上的时间加上接订单、联系用户的时间只有30%。

    现在，对亚马逊网络服务的任何质疑早已烟消云散。就像亚马逊做出的其它赌注一样（比如扩展图书之外的市场、将自营市场发展成第三方销售平台、Kindle平板/阅读器等），亚马逊网络服务也获得了巨大的成功。才几年的工夫，事实就已证明，这个靠出租数据储存服务和计算能力来赚钱的点子是非常聪明的。福雷斯特研究公司（Forrester）分析师布莱恩•沃克表示：“这是一个很有意思的案例，它展示了一个公司可以如何制定一个目标和宗旨，然后使这个目标具体化，然后不仅推动了一个新的商机，还提升了企业的内部能力。”

    根据瑞银投资研究（UBS Investment Research）的数据，2010年亚马逊网络服务的营收达到5亿美元，2011年这个数字猛增到12亿美元。现在从若干统计来看，亚马逊网络业务已经发展成一项年收入达15亿美元的业务。今天，使用亚马逊网络服务的公司已有数十万家，其中不乏流媒体视频巨头Netflix、照片分享网站Instagram等大牌科技公司，甚至连美国国家航空航天局（NASA）也是亚马逊网络服务的客户。他们主要依赖亚马逊提供的数据库存取、内容交付和支付等业务。月访问量达1700万人的知名社交网站Pinterest也利用亚马逊网络服务来管理超过400兆兆字节的公司数据。亚马逊网络服务已经获得了巨大的成功，根据一位分析师的计算，它在基础设施即服务（IaaS）领域的市场份额已经超过了70%。（即便是离它最近的竞争对手也落后很远。排在该领域第二名的是总部位于德州圣安东尼奥市的Rackspace公司，它的市场占有率刚刚超过10%。）

    那么，亚马逊网络服务的未来前景如何？

    首先是扩张。去年亚马逊网络服务的运营地区从四个增加到了八个。而且塞利普斯基认为，未来几年里亚马逊网络服务还会做出进一步的地缘扩张。这不仅意味着亚马逊有机会增加它的国际客户群，同时该公司也希望这可以为美国国内客户带来一些福音。比如如果美国的一家公司想要进入日本市场，那么通过亚马逊网络服务把一款在弗吉尼亚州运行的应用转移到东京并不是什么难事。因此那家公司就可以把重点放在招揽用户上，而不必在另一个国家重新构建基础架构。亚马逊希望在海外通过这种良性循环给自己的网络服务带来更多的财富。

    When Amazon Web Services emerged in 2006, it was questioned far and wide. What, exactly, was the online mega-retailer doing dabbling in web infrastructure?

    The move to provide services that have widely become known as cloud computing even puzzled some inside the company. "It was a big soul-searching decision," recalls Adam Selipsky, Amazon (AMZN) Web Services Vice President of Product Management and Developer Relations. But the business, based on the ideas in a 2004 research paper, made sense to many, including CEO Jeff Bezos. As Selipsky tells it, most developers were spending 70% of their time working on tasks like setting up servers and managing databases, and just 30% of their time on their actual core business, taking orders say, or connecting users.

    Any doubts about Amazon Web Services (AWS) have long been buried underground. Just as other company gambles have succeeded -- expanding beyond books, opening the marketplace up to third-party sales, the Kindle -- AWS has paid off. Several years in, the seemingly left-field gamble that companies would rent data storage and computational power now just seems, well, brilliant. "It's an interesting case study in how a company can take an objective and goal, externalize and not only drive a new business opportunity but refine an internal capability as well," explains Forrester (FORR) analyst Brian Walker.

    In 2010, AWS generated $500 million in revenues according to UBS Investment Research, a number that would balloon to $1.2 billion a year later. Now, by some accounts, AWS is a $1.5 billion annual business. AWS powers hundreds of thousands of companies, including Netflix (NFLX), Instagram (FB), and even NASA. They bank on Amazon for services like online database access, content delivery, and payments. Pinterest, the popular social network that draws over 17 million monthly visitors, uses AWS to manage over 400 terabytes of company data at any given time. Indeed, AWS has become so successful, that one analyst pegs its market share in the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) space at over 70%. (It's nearest competitor, the San Antonio-based Rackspace (RAX), lags far behind, with just over 10% of the market.)

    So what does the future hold for AWS?

    First, expansion. Last year, AWS doubled the number of regions it operated in from four to eight, and Selipsky expects further geographic conquests over the next few years. While that means opportunities to build up its international client base, Amazon hopes it will be a boon for clients at home. If a company in the U.S., for instance, is trying to enter the Japanese market, Selipsky argues that transferring an application running in Virginia to AWS in Tokyo is simple. That would leave said firm focused on acquiring customers, not building infrastructure in a foreign country. Amazon is banking on this virtuous cycle boosting AWS' fortunes abroad.