隨著微軟與雅虎就所提議的收購(gòu)陷入僵局,其競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手IBM以及谷歌逐漸加大努力,以攜手主宰它們認(rèn)為將在21世紀(jì)主導(dǎo)軟件分銷(xiāo)的模式,即所謂的云計(jì)算(cloud computing)。
迄今為止,它們的大多數(shù)工作在低調(diào)的幕后進(jìn)行,但是,在上周四在IBM在洛杉磯舉行的大會(huì)上,這兩家公司的首席執(zhí)行官做出少見(jiàn)的共同會(huì)面時(shí),它們之間的密切關(guān)系旋即完全曝光。
IBM的Sam Palmisano以及谷歌的Eric Schmidt從領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力以及創(chuàng)新上依次贊揚(yáng)了對(duì)方。他們還堅(jiān)持認(rèn)為,兩家公司具有許多相似性,盡管谷歌這家立足硅谷的消費(fèi)網(wǎng)絡(luò)巨頭與位于紐約郊外的IBM這家從事商業(yè)計(jì)算的百年老店之間存在顯著差異。
Palmisano笑談道:“我們令人厭煩,他們令人激動(dòng)；我們步履蹣跚,他們舉止敏捷；我們機(jī)構(gòu)臃腫,他們?nèi)藛T精干。”然而,他表示,IBM和谷歌之間的對(duì)比是非常膚淺的,他指出,兩家供應(yīng)商均“根植于創(chuàng)造價(jià)值”并且分享“共同的技術(shù)合作。”
Schmidt透露說(shuō),IBM還處理谷歌的賬戶支付工作。
IBM和谷歌計(jì)劃開(kāi)拓它們對(duì)全球的共同技術(shù)觀察以及大量的人才,以構(gòu)架一個(gè)全球性網(wǎng)絡(luò),或者說(shuō),服務(wù)器云,消費(fèi)者和企業(yè)將從中下載一切內(nèi)容,從在線足球賽程到先進(jìn)的工程應(yīng)用資料。
“這是我們終身追求的目標(biāo),”Schmidt表示。
這個(gè)聯(lián)盟懷著宏偉的雄心,當(dāng)幾年前Palmisano在電話中與Schmidt做了簡(jiǎn)單的交流之后就開(kāi)始了。
“我們并不是尋求賣(mài)什么產(chǎn)品給他們,”P(pán)almisano解釋說(shuō)。
這次通話導(dǎo)致了白板會(huì)議設(shè)備的誕生,并最終在協(xié)作努力之下,IBM和谷歌構(gòu)建了它們自己的云計(jì)算,并在那年十月提交給幾所頂級(jí)工程大學(xué),包括MIT、斯坦福以及卡內(nèi)基梅隆,從而開(kāi)辟了一個(gè)市場(chǎng)。
IBM-谷歌之云對(duì)于微軟來(lái)說(shuō),可能更像日益逼近的暴風(fēng)雨,它運(yùn)行在Linux之上,IBM早已擁抱它作為一種Windows的替代品。它還包含Xen系統(tǒng)虛擬化以及Apache Hadoop,它們是谷歌文件系統(tǒng)的開(kāi)放源實(shí)現(xiàn)。
谷歌已經(jīng)向消費(fèi)者推出了若干免費(fèi)的、基于云的服務(wù),如電子郵件和存儲(chǔ),但是,它剛剛叩開(kāi)有利的商業(yè)市場(chǎng)。除了安全要求以外,“在企業(yè)云與消費(fèi)者云之間沒(méi)有太大差異,”Schmidt在這一點(diǎn)上指出。
“云在商業(yè)上具有較高的價(jià)值,那是我們與IBM協(xié)作的秘密,”他補(bǔ)充說(shuō)道。
谷歌與IBM一道令人信服地向商業(yè)和消費(fèi)市場(chǎng)中的計(jì)算機(jī)用戶提供主機(jī)產(chǎn)品,范圍包括基本的生產(chǎn)率軟件,如文字處理以及日歷(如谷歌的Docs和IBM的Lotus Symphony套件),乃至尖端的安全性以及管理工具(通過(guò)IBM的Tivoli產(chǎn)品以及谷歌的Postini部門(mén))。
當(dāng)微軟努力開(kāi)發(fā)一種它自己的連貫網(wǎng)絡(luò)策略之時(shí),IBM和谷歌之間的合作伙伴關(guān)系被強(qiáng)化了,微軟是IBM以及谷歌的共同競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手。
對(duì)于云計(jì)算發(fā)展趨勢(shì)的回答就是,把一些應(yīng)用轉(zhuǎn)移至互聯(lián)網(wǎng)之下,采取所謂的軟件加服務(wù)的策略。然而,微軟這個(gè)巨頭的盈利仍然來(lái)自軟件,這些軟件要么在零售店以軟件盒方式出售,要么在像戴爾這樣的巨型制造商的個(gè)人電腦中預(yù)裝。
微軟意欲收購(gòu)雅虎就是為了提升其網(wǎng)絡(luò)存在,但是,首席執(zhí)行官Steve Ballmer的侵略性戰(zhàn)術(shù)(他最近給予雅虎三個(gè)星期的通牒要求接受收購(gòu)；但是,上周末平安無(wú)事地過(guò)去了)只會(huì)造成其目標(biāo)收購(gòu)對(duì)象的敵意。雖然收購(gòu)無(wú)法成為現(xiàn)實(shí),但兩家公司之間的合作關(guān)系似乎不成問(wèn)題,只要現(xiàn)有的管理層在兩家公司均在位。
與此同時(shí),IBM和谷歌似乎準(zhǔn)備從其學(xué)術(shù)研究成果推出云計(jì)算的產(chǎn)品版本。
兩家公司在上周四并未就實(shí)現(xiàn)那個(gè)目的而做出詳細(xì)的發(fā)布,但是,Schmidt和Palmisano均充滿友好輕松色彩的講話,給人留下了攜手努力無(wú)疑將加速的印象。的確,他們可能已經(jīng)充分地在洛杉磯大會(huì)中心向幾千家由IBM業(yè)務(wù)合作伙伴構(gòu)成的聽(tīng)眾做了說(shuō)明,那就是“關(guān)注這一領(lǐng)域。”
備注:關(guān)于“云計(jì)算”
云計(jì)算(Cloud Computing)是分布式處理(Distributed Computing)、并行處理(Parallel Computing)和網(wǎng)格計(jì)算(Grid Computing)的發(fā)展,或者說(shuō)是這些計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)概念的商業(yè)實(shí)現(xiàn)。
云計(jì)算的基本原理是,通過(guò)使計(jì)算分布在大量的分布式計(jì)算機(jī)上,而非本地計(jì)算機(jī)或遠(yuǎn)程服務(wù)器中,企業(yè)數(shù)據(jù)中心的運(yùn)行將更與互聯(lián)網(wǎng)相似。這使得企業(yè)能夠?qū)①Y源切換到需要的應(yīng)用上,根據(jù)需求訪問(wèn)計(jì)算機(jī)和存儲(chǔ)系統(tǒng)。
這可是一種革命性的舉措,打個(gè)比方,這就好比是從古老的單臺(tái)發(fā)電機(jī)模式轉(zhuǎn)向了電廠集中供電的模式。它意味著計(jì)算能力也可以作為一種商品進(jìn)行流通,就像煤氣、水電一樣,取用方便,費(fèi)用低廉。最大的不同在于,它是通過(guò)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)進(jìn)行傳輸?shù)摹?/p>
云計(jì)算的藍(lán)圖已經(jīng)呼之欲出:在未來(lái),只需要一臺(tái)筆記本或者一個(gè)手機(jī),就可以通過(guò)網(wǎng)絡(luò)服務(wù)來(lái)實(shí)現(xiàn)我們需要的一切,甚至包括超級(jí)計(jì)算這樣的任務(wù)。從這個(gè)角度而言,最終用戶才是云計(jì)算的真正擁有者。
云計(jì)算的應(yīng)用包含這樣的一種思想,把力量聯(lián)合起來(lái),給其中的每一個(gè)成員使用。
目前,PC依然是我們?nèi)粘９ぷ魃钪械暮诵墓ぞ摺覀冇肞C處理文檔、存儲(chǔ)資料,通過(guò)電子郵件或U盤(pán)與他人分享信息。如果PC硬盤(pán)壞了,我們會(huì)因?yàn)橘Y料丟失而束手無(wú)策。
而在“云計(jì)算”時(shí)代,“云”會(huì)替我們做存儲(chǔ)和計(jì)算的工作。“云”就是計(jì)算機(jī)群,每一群包括了幾十萬(wàn)臺(tái)、甚至上百萬(wàn)臺(tái)計(jì)算機(jī)。“云”的好處還在于,其中的計(jì)算機(jī)可以隨時(shí)更新,保證“云”長(zhǎng)生不老。Google就有好幾個(gè)這樣的“云”,其他IT巨頭,如微軟、雅虎、亞馬遜(Amazon)也有或正在建設(shè)這樣的“云”。
屆時(shí),我們只需要一臺(tái)能上網(wǎng)的電腦,不需關(guān)心存儲(chǔ)或計(jì)算發(fā)生在哪朵“云”上,但一旦有需要,我們可以在任何地點(diǎn)用任何設(shè)備,如電腦、手機(jī)等,快速地計(jì)算和找到這些資料。我們?cè)僖膊挥脫?dān)心資料丟失。
云計(jì)算的說(shuō)法正在廣為流行,Gartner高級(jí)分析師Ben Pring評(píng)價(jià)道:“它正在成為一個(gè)大眾化的詞語(yǔ)。”但是,問(wèn)題是似乎每個(gè)人對(duì)于云計(jì)算的理解各不相同。作為一個(gè)對(duì)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的比喻,“云”是很容易理解的。但是一旦同“計(jì)算”聯(lián)系起來(lái),它的意義就擴(kuò)展了,而且開(kāi)始變得模糊起來(lái)。有些分析師和公司把云計(jì)算僅僅定義為計(jì)算的升級(jí)版——基本上就是互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上提供的眾多虛擬服務(wù)器。另外一些人把云計(jì)算定義的更加寬泛,他們認(rèn)為用戶在防火墻保護(hù)之外消費(fèi)的任何事物都處于“云”之中。
翻頁(yè)查看英文原文:
Google, IBM join forces to dominate 'cloud computing'
With Microsoft and Yahoo in an icy stalemate over a proposed merger, rivals IBM and Google are ramping up efforts to jointly dominate what they believe will be the dominant software delivery model in the 21st century -- so called cloud computing.
Much of their work until now has taken place behind the scenes under a low profile, but the companies' close relationship was fully apparent Thursday when their CEOs made a rare joint appearance on stage at an IBM conference in Los Angeles.
Sam Palmisano of IBM and Google's Eric Schmidt in turn complimented each other on issues ranging from leadership to technological innovation. They also insisted that their companies share lots of similarities, despite obvious differences between a consumer Web giant that calls Silicon Valley home and a suburban New York-based centenarian of business computing.
"We're boring, they're exciting; we're slow, they're fast; we're fat, they're skinny," Palmisano joked. But the contrasts between IBM and Google are mostly skin deep, he said, noting that both vendors are "grounded in values" and share "a common technical alignment."
(IBM also processes accounts payables for Google, Schmidt revealed.)
IBM and Google plan to exploit their common technological world view and considerable talent to build a worldwide network, or cloud, of servers from which consumers and businesses will tap everything from online soccer schedules to advanced engineering applications.
"It's the story of our lifetime," said Schmidt.
The alliance, with its grand ambitions, started a couple of years ago with a simple phone call from Palmisano to Schmidt. "Sam called and wanted to know what we thought about distributed computing," said Schmidt.
"We weren't looking to sell them anything," said Palmisano.
The call led to whiteboarding sessions and ultimately a collaborative effort under which IBM and Google built a version of their cloud and in October gave it to several top engineering universities, including MIT, Stanford, and Carnegie Mellon, to poke away at.
The IBM-Google cloud, which to Microsoft might look more like an approaching thunderhead, runs on Linux, which has long been embraced by IBM as a non-Windows alternative. It also includes Xen systems virtualization and Apache Hadoop -- an open source implementation of the Google File System.
Google has already rolled out to consumers a number of free, cloud-based services such as e-mail and storage, but it's barely tapped the lucrative commercial market. With the exception of security requirements, "there's not that much difference between the enterprise cloud and the consumer cloud," Schmidt said at one point.
"The cloud has higher value in business, that's the secret to our collaboration" with IBM, he added at another.
Together, Google and IBM could conceivably supply computer users in the business and consumer markets with hosted offerings that range from basic productivity software like word processing and calendaring (such as Google Docs and IBM's Lotus Symphony suite) to sophisticated security and management tools (through IBM's Tivoli products and Google's Postini unit).
The partnership is solidifying at a time when Microsoft -- rivalry with which is another thing IBM and Google have in common -- is struggling to develop a coherent Web strategy of its own.
Its answer to the cloud trend is to move some applications to the Internet under a strategy it calls software plus services. But the bulk of Microsoft's profits still come from software that's either sold in boxes at retail stores or preinstalled on PCs by big manufacturers like Dell.
Microsoft is seeking to buy out Yahoo to bolster its Web presence, but CEO Steve Ballmer's aggressive tactics (he recently gave Yahoo a three-week deadline to accept the deal; it passed uneventfully last weekend) have only engendered hostility from his target. Should the merger fail to materialize, future partnerships between the two companies would seem out of the question as long as current management is in place on both sides.
Meanwhile, IBM and Google appear ready to kick their cloud out of its academic nest to start rolling out production versions.
The companies did not make specific announcements to that end on Thursday, but Schmidt and Palmisano, both dressed in LA-friendly lighter colors, left little doubt that their joint efforts are accelerating. Indeed, they might well have told their audience of several thousand IBM business partners at the Los Angeles Convention Center to "watch this space."
