经济学人下载:云计算的发轫之困

Cloud computing's growing pains
云计算的发轫之困

Break-ins and breakdowns
侵入和故障

The lessons from Sony's big security lapse and Amazon's cloud-computing outage
从索尼的巨大安全漏洞和亚马逊的云计算中断中汲取的教训

IT COULD turn out to be the biggest breach of data privacy since the advent of the internet. Sony admitted this week that hackers had stolen personal information, possibly including credit-card details, of many of the 77m-plus users of its online-gaming and entertainment networks. The Japanese company did not admit the full extent of the potential risks to its customers until nearly a week after it had taken its PlayStation Network off air, though it insisted that it had done so as soon as it realised how serious the intrusion into its systems had been.

这可能是互联网出现以来最大一宗违反数据保密的事件了。本周，索尼承认，黑客们盗走其在线游戏和娱乐网络中超过7700万用户的个人信息——很可能包括信用卡资料。在将PlayStation网络关闭近一周之后，索尼才向它的客户承认其潜在风险。尽管如此，索尼坚称，在它意识到系统被侵的严重性之后，它便做出了反应。

Amazon, an American online retailer and provider of "cloud computing" services, has also suffered a lengthy breakdown at one of the giant server farms whose storage and processing facilities it rents to other companies. The two lapses, though unconnected and different in nature, have raised the question of whether customers can really trust the basic idea behind the cloud-that you can buy computing services from the internet, just like gas or water from a utility.

美国网上零售商以及“云计算”服务的供应商亚马逊的其中一个巨型服务器场也经历了漫长的故障。这一服务器场的存储器和处理设备被用来租借给其它公司。尽管两起事故并无关联且本质不同，但人们不禁要问，我们能真的能相信“云”背后的基本理念吗？——我们从互联网购买计算服务就像从公用事业单位购买煤气或水那样？