阿里巴巴向硅谷推出雲服務 正面PK亞馬遜微軟

The new California data center marks the Chinese company’s latest measured expansion onto American soil, and into a hotly contested U.S. market now dominated by Inc , Microsoft Corp and Google Inc.

該數據中心是阿里巴巴在美國謹慎擴張的最新舉措，該公司也藉此進入了競爭激烈的美國雲服務市場。在這裏，佔據主導地位的是亞馬遜、微軟和谷歌。

Alibaba’s Aliyun cloud division intends the new data center to cater initially to Chinese companies with operations in the U.S., including retail, Internet and gaming firms. It will later target U.S. businesses seeking a presence in both countries, Ethan Yu, a vice president at Alibaba who runs the international cloud business, told Reuters.

阿里巴巴負責國際雲業務的副總裁喻思成告訴路透社記者，該公司旗下的阿里雲打算首先通過該中心爲在美國從事經營活動的中國公司提供服務，後者包括零售商、網絡和遊戲公司；隨後，該中心將把目光投向希望同時在中美兩國開展業務的美國企業。

“This is a very strategic move for us,” Yu said, declining to say how much Alibaba invested in the data center or disclose its location for security reasons. “International expansion is actually a company strategy in the coming few years.”

喻思成沒有透露該中心的投資規模；出於安全考慮，他也沒有透露該中心的位置。但喻思成說：“這對我們來說是具有重要戰略意義的行動。國際擴張實際上是我們整個公司今後幾年的策略。”

“Eventually we may expand to other regions, for example the East Coast or middle part of the U.S., if our customers have the demand for that.”

“如果客戶有這樣的需求，我們的業務最終有可能發展到美國的其他地區，比如東海岸或中部。”

Aliyun, which has been likened to a budding version of Amazon Web Services, began as part of the company’s in-house technical infrastructure but has since expanded to lease processing and storage space for small and medium Internet businesses in China.

人們一直把阿里雲比喻爲初級版的亞馬遜網絡服務。這項業務最初是阿里巴巴內部技術基礎設施的一部分，隨後不斷髮展壯大，目前主要爲國內中小型互聯網企業提供數據處理服務和存儲空間。

While Alibaba dominates e-commerce in China, Aliyun, also known as AlibabaCloud Computing, holds about a 23% market share in its home market. It faces both Chinese and foreign competitors, from carriers like China Telecom to Microsoft and Amazon. Its existing data centers span the Chinese cities of Hangzhou, Qingdao, Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

阿里巴巴是中國電商行業主導者，阿里雲在國內市場的份額約爲23%，但它面對的是來自國內外的競爭對手，其中有中國電信這樣的電信運營商，也有微軟和亞馬遜這樣的海外企業。阿里雲目前在杭州、青島、北京、深圳和香港設有數據中心。

Alibaba is kicking off its U.S. cloud business as American corporations and politicians are protesting what they see as Beijing’s efforts to curb foreign technology at home.

就在阿里巴巴啓動美國雲業務之際，美國企業和政界人士正在對中國政府表達不滿，原因是他們認爲後者限制了外國技術在中國的發展。

Chinese government controls have limited foreign competition and disrupted many online services, including Google’s and Amazon Web Services’, according to censorship watchdogs.

審查制度觀察組織認爲，中國政府的管制限制了來自國外的競爭，影響了多家公司的在線服務業務，包括谷歌的相關服務和亞馬遜網絡服務。

This week, U.S. President Barack Obama sharply criticized new Chinese counter-terrorism regulationsthat subject overseas companies to arduous measures regarding data management. The official Chinese news agency Xinhua responded Wednesday by calling Obama’s criticisms “utterly groundless and another piece of evidence of arrogance and hypocrisy of the U.S. foreign policy.”

本週，美國總統奧巴馬對中國的反恐新規提出強烈批評，稱這些規定給外國公司的數據管理帶來了極大困難。新華社週三對此做出迴應，稱奧巴馬的批評“毫無根據，再次體現了美國外交政策的傲慢和僞善。”

A more immediate concern may be how Alibaba intends to vie with the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Google, which are slashing prices on cloud services to try and sustain double-digit growth. They’re battling over a public cloud services market that could grow into an $100 billion industry by 2017, according to researcher IDC.

另一個問題也許更爲緊要，那就是阿里巴巴打算怎樣跟亞馬遜、微軟和谷歌等公司抗衡。爲了維持雙位數增長，這些公司已經下調了雲服務價格。研究機構IDC預計，到2017年，這些企業所爭奪的公共雲服務市場的規模有望增長到1000億美元。

U.S. customers are not expected to be bothered by the service’s Chinese ownership if pricing is competitive.

如果價格具有競爭力，預計美國消費者不會介意這項業務由一家中國公司來提供。

Alibaba has big plans for Aliyun, which now accounts for about 1% of its revenue but supports its core e-commerce operation and will also play a pivotal role in the long run. Alibaba sees cloud computing as key to its plans to aggregate and analyze the vast quantities of data it collects, including on consumer behavior.

阿里巴巴爲阿里雲制定了遠大計劃。目前阿里雲約佔該公司收入的1%，但它爲阿里巴巴的核心電商業務提供支持，而且長期來看將發揮關鍵作用。阿里巴巴計劃進行大量數據彙集和分析工作，其中包括消費者行爲數據，公司認爲雲計算是實現這一計劃的關鍵。

The company also needs to find ways to sustain so-far stunning growth. Shares in the company fell to their lowest levels since their debut on Tuesday, after rival ’s JD 0.69% better-than-expected quarterly results revived concerns that Alibaba’s expansion is slowing.

阿里巴巴需要尋找方式，來維持一直以來的飛速增長。週二，該公司股價創上市以來新低，原因是競爭對手京東的季度業務好於預期，這讓人們再次開始擔心阿里巴巴的擴張速度正在放慢。