小企业挑战大公司

SoftLayer vs. 亚马逊网络服务

    挑战目标：简单地说，亚马逊（Amazon）、Saleforce.com和云计算领域的其他大公司都是其竞争对手。

    创业故事：七年前，兰斯•克罗斯比在达拉斯与人合作成立了云计算基础设施供应商SoftLayer，他当时便知道自己肯定能够成功。公司客户们对于通过SoftLayer全球平台管理服务器等IT资源创意很是中意。它们再也不必购买自己的平台。可惜，克罗斯比并不是第一个有这种想法的人：亚马逊网络服务在同一时间发布。为了突出自己的公司，42岁的克罗斯比将重心放在吸引有经验的消费者上面，如手机应用开发人员，而不是与亚马逊争夺更广泛的受众。去年，公司约有700名员工，总收入达到3.3亿美元。克罗斯比说：“目前，云技术发展迅速，各大公司都在抢占地盘。”

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

SoftLayer vs. Amazon Web Services

    The challenge: Simply put, Amazon, Salesforce.com, and every other 500-pound gorilla in the cloud-computing universe.

    What he did: Lance Crosby knew he was onto something when he co-founded SoftLayer, a provider of cloud-based computing infrastructure, seven years ago in Dallas. Companies loved the idea of managing their IT resources, like servers, through SoftLayer's global platform instead of having to buy them on their own. Unfortunately, he wasn't the first to think of the idea: Amazon Web Services got rolling around the same time. To stand out, Crosby, 42, focused on attracting sophisticated customers like mobile-app developers, rather than Amazon's broader audience. Last year the profitable, nearly 700-employee firm logged $330 million in revenue. Crosby says, "Currently the cloud is growing so fast that it's a land grab at this point."