微軟增長的關鍵：不是新Windows 10，而是云業務

????微軟提供的服務有什么獨特之處？

????我經常跟顧客講述我們做的三件特別的事，這三件事情結合起來在行業中獨樹一幟。

????第一，我們通過在世界各地部署的Azure服務，提供超大規模的云平臺。我們現在在全球16個地區建立了數據中心。每個區域建有多個數據中心的集群?？陀^而言，亞馬遜（Amazon）的區域數量只有我們的一半。谷歌（Google）的云平臺區域只有我們的五分之一。所以，從地域而言，現在我們的覆蓋面最廣。就規模而言，我們是少數幾個超大規模供應商之一（另外兩個是亞馬遜和谷歌），每年在云數據中心安裝成千上萬或數以百萬計的服務器。

????我們認為，從經濟性和顧客能力角度來看，當公司安裝并擁有如此大的處理能力，其地域覆蓋和規模經濟將使公司處于獨特地位，我們可以隨時隨地服務于客戶，運行數以萬計的虛擬機器，或進行拍字節或艾字節的存儲。我們認為最終大約將有三家供應商有能力滿足這一需求。

????與另外兩家供應商相比，我們有兩個差異化特點。一個是企業級，我們專注于提供超大規模服務，不僅在經濟和地域覆蓋方面是超大規模，而且在能力、支持和整體服務方面實現真正的企業級。為了達到這種企業級服務，微軟確實投入了20多年的努力。這說起來很容易，但要付諸實踐并獲得企業的信任，則需要很長時間。

????另一個特點是，我們的本地部署業務規模非常龐大，得益于我們現有的服務器軟件和我們的私有云能力。其中，我們關注的一個焦點是，如何使組織和企業以及初創企業和獨立軟件開發商能夠創建解決方案，不僅能夠使用超大規模公共云，也可以與企業現有數據中心進行整合，即建立一種混合解決方案。

????基于您剛才所說，您如何看待亞馬遜獲得如此多的市場份額？

????亞馬遜是首批大力投入云業務的企業之一。所以肯定具有先發優勢，他們能夠從中受益。如果我們在云方面的投入能夠提早3年開始就好了。他們能夠那么早涉足云業務，對此向他們致敬。就目前的業務而言，《財富》美國500強中，約有57％的企業部署了微軟的Azure。當然，我的主要使命不是僅僅維持第二名的位置，而是真正從當前的領先者手中獲取市場份額。說到底，我們要實現這一點，需要提供獨特的產品和與眾不同的視角。

????薩蒂亞[納德拉]在擔任首席執行官之前，曾擔任您現在的職位，這一點有影響目前您與首席執行官之間的關系嗎？

????從這個角度而言,我不知道是不是應該說發生了很大的變化。我們一直說以移動為本、以云為本,也許可以換一種表述方式,那就是“設備和服務”。這一直是我們公司的重點，即使在薩蒂亞成為公司首席執行官之前也是如此。從戰略的角度來看，我們專注于云已有幾年時間。并不是說我們現在才開始重視云。我們對云的重視已經有相當長一段時間。

????當然，我們的首席執行官是云的堅定擁護者，而且擁有豐富的運營云業務的第一手經驗，這對公司很有益。這不僅有助于我的業務領域，也有利于我們正在開發的其他一些云服務，包括云和企業業務之外的設備、游戲或Office相關的云服務。

????譯者：Lina

????What’s unique about what Microsoft is offering?

????The story I usually tell customers is how we’re really doing three unique things—three things that the combination of which we think is unique in the industry.

????One is, we’re focused on and delivering a hyper-scale cloud platform with our Azure service that’s deployed around the world. We’re now in 16 regions around the world. Each region is a cluster of multiple data centers. Put in perspective, Amazon has about half that many regions. Google for their cloud platform only has about a fifth of those regions today. So we actually now have the broadest coverage from a geographic perspective. From a scaling perspective, I think we’re one of [very few]—Amazon and Google being the other two—hyper-scale providers out there that are installing many, many hundreds of thousands or millions of servers every year in our cloud data centers.

????We believe that that geographic footprint, as well as the economies of scale that you get when you install and have that much capacity, puts you in a unique position from an economic and from a customer capability perspective, where we can take the customers and can literally spin up tens of thousands of virtual machines, or store petabytes or exabytes of storage instantly anywhere in the world. Ultimately we think there are about three providers out there that are going to be able to meet that need.

????Where I think we differentiate then, versus the other two, is around two characteristics. One is enterprise grade and the focus on delivering something that’s not only hyper-scale from an economic and from a geographic reach perspective but really enterprise-grade from a capability, support, and overall services perspective. I think that’s something that Microsoft has really kind of invested for 20-plus years in terms of getting there to be enterprise grade. It’s something you can say pretty easily, that you’re enterprise grade. But it takes an awful lot of time both to build out the muscle and earn the trust of organizations.

????The other thing that we have that’s fairly unique is a very large on-premises footprint with our existing server software and with our private cloud capabilities. One of the things that we’re focusing on is, how do we enable organizations and enterprises as well as the startups and ISVs to build solutions that span not only hyper scale public cloud but can also integrate within enterprise’s existing data centers and build hybrid solutions that span across both?

????What’s your assessment, in light of everything you just said, of how Amazon has been able to move forward in gaining so much market share?

????Well, I think Amazon was one of the first to really go big in the cloud space. So I think there’s certainly a first mover advantage that they’ve been able to benefit from. I wish we started three years before we did with our own cloud effort. Kudos to them for really embracing it as early as they did. In terms of where we’re at today, we’ve got about 57% of the Fortune 500 that are now deployed on Microsoft Azure. Obviously a core part of my mission is to not just be the solid number two but to actually gain on the current leader from a market-share perspective. Ultimately the way we think we do that is by having a unique set of offerings and a unique point of view that is differentiated.

????Does the fact that Satya [Nadella] had your role in the organization before becoming CEO in any way change the relationship that you have with the CEO now?

????Well, I don’t know if I’d say there’s been a big change from that perspective. I mean, I think obviously we’ve been saying for a while this mobile-first, cloud-first…”devices and services” is maybe another way to put it. That’s been our focus as a company even before Satya became CEO. From a strategic perspective, I think we very much have been focused on cloud now for a couple of years. I wouldn’t say this now means, “Oh, now we’re serious about cloud.” I think we’ve been serious about cloud for quite a while.

????Certainly it helps the fact that the CEO is a big believer in cloud and has a bunch of first-hand experience running the cloud businesses. It certainly helps, not only in my world, but also some of the other cloud services that we’re doing, whether they’re device specific or gaming specific or with our Office business, which is outside of the cloud and enterprise group.