????2006年，亞馬遜網絡服務（Amazon Web Services）一經誕生就受到了廣泛的質疑。大家都在想，這個在線零售巨頭試水網絡基礎架構領域，究竟意欲何為？

????這些服務就是后來廣為人知的“云計算”，此舉最初讓亞馬遜公司內部的某些人感到疑惑不解。亞馬遜網絡服務產品管理與開發者關系副總裁亞當?塞利普斯基回憶道：“這是一個深思熟慮的決定。”不過這項脫胎于一份2004年的研究報告的業務還是說服了很多人，包括亞馬遜的CEO杰夫?貝索斯。正如塞利普斯基所說的那樣，大多數開發者把70%的工作時間花在安裝服務器和管理數據庫這樣的任務上，而花在核心業務上的時間加上接訂單、聯系用戶的時間只有30%。

????現在，對亞馬遜網絡服務的任何質疑早已煙消云散。就像亞馬遜做出的其它賭注一樣（比如擴展圖書之外的市場、將自營市場發展成第三方銷售平臺、Kindle平板/閱讀器等），亞馬遜網絡服務也獲得了巨大的成功。才幾年的工夫，事實就已證明，這個靠出租數據儲存服務和計算能力來賺錢的點子是非常聰明的。福雷斯特研究公司（Forrester）分析師布萊恩?沃克表示：“這是一個很有意思的案例，它展示了一個公司可以如何制定一個目標和宗旨，然后使這個目標具體化，然后不僅推動了一個新的商機，還提升了企業的內部能力。”

????根據瑞銀投資研究（UBS Investment Research）的數據，2010年亞馬遜網絡服務的營收達到5億美元，2011年這個數字猛增到12億美元。現在從若干統計來看，亞馬遜網絡業務已經發展成一項年收入達15億美元的業務。今天，使用亞馬遜網絡服務的公司已有數十萬家，其中不乏流媒體視頻巨頭Netflix、照片分享網站Instagram等大牌科技公司，甚至連美國國家航空航天局（NASA）也是亞馬遜網絡服務的客戶。他們主要依賴亞馬遜提供的數據庫存取、內容交付和支付等業務。月訪問量達1700萬人的知名社交網站Pinterest也利用亞馬遜網絡服務來管理超過400兆兆字節的公司數據。亞馬遜網絡服務已經獲得了巨大的成功，根據一位分析師的計算，它在基礎設施即服務（IaaS）領域的市場份額已經超過了70%。（即便是離它最近的競爭對手也落后很遠。排在該領域第二名的是總部位于德州圣安東尼奧市的Rackspace公司，它的市場占有率剛剛超過10%。）

????那么，亞馬遜網絡服務的未來前景如何？

????首先是擴張。去年亞馬遜網絡服務的運營地區從四個增加到了八個。而且塞利普斯基認為，未來幾年里亞馬遜網絡服務還會做出進一步的地緣擴張。這不僅意味著亞馬遜有機會增加它的國際客戶群，同時該公司也希望這可以為美國國內客戶帶來一些福音。比如如果美國的一家公司想要進入日本市場，那么通過亞馬遜網絡服務把一款在弗吉尼亞州運行的應用轉移到東京并不是什么難事。因此那家公司就可以把重點放在招攬用戶上，而不必在另一個國家重新構建基礎架構。亞馬遜希望在海外通過這種良性循環給自己的網絡服務帶來更多的財富。

????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.