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 Amazon.com Inc , Microsoft Corp and Google Inc.
该数据中心是阿里巴巴在美国谨慎扩张的最新举措，该公司也借此进入了竞争激烈的美国云服务市场。在这里，占据主导地位的是亚马逊、微软和谷歌。

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.
阿里巴巴负责国际云业务的副总裁喻思成告诉路透社记者，该公司旗下的阿里云打算首先通过该中心为在美国从事经营活动的中国公司提供服务，后者包括零售商、网络和游戏公司；随后，该中心将把目光投向希望同时在中美两国开展业务的美国企业。
“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.”
喻思成没有透露该中心的投资规模；出于安全考虑，他也没有透露该中心的位置。但喻思成说：“这对我们来说是具有重要战略意义的行动。国际扩张实际上是我们整个公司今后几年的策略。”
“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.”
“如果客户有这样的需求，我们的业务最终有可能发展到美国的其他地区，比如东海岸或中部。”
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.
人们一直把阿里云比喻为初级版的亚马逊网络服务。这项业务最初是阿里巴巴内部技术基础设施的一部分，随后不断发展壮大，目前主要为国内中小型互联网企业提供数据处理服务和存储空间。
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.
阿里巴巴是中国电商行业主导者，阿里云在国内市场的份额约为23%，但它面对的是来自国内外的竞争对手，其中有中国电信这样的电信运营商，也有微软和亚马逊这样的海外企业。阿里云目前在杭州、青岛、北京、深圳和香港设有数据中心。
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.
就在阿里巴巴启动美国云业务之际，美国企业和政界人士正在对中国政府表达不满，原因是他们认为后者限制了外国技术在中国的发展。
Chinese government controls have limited foreign competition and disrupted many online services, including Google’s and Amazon Web Services’, according to censorship watchdogs.
审查制度观察组织认为，中国政府的管制限制了来自国外的竞争，影响了多家公司的在线服务业务，包括谷歌的相关服务和亚马逊网络服务。
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.”
本周，美国总统奥巴马对中国的反恐新规提出强烈批评，称这些规定给外国公司的数据管理带来了极大困难。新华社周三对此做出回应，称奥巴马的批评“毫无根据，再次体现了美国外交政策的傲慢和伪善。”
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.
另一个问题也许更为紧要，那就是阿里巴巴打算怎样跟亚马逊、微软和谷歌等公司抗衡。为了维持双位数增长，这些公司已经下调了云服务价格。研究机构IDC预计，到2017年，这些企业所争夺的公共云服务市场的规模有望增长到1000亿美元。
U.S. customers are not expected to be bothered by the service’s Chinese ownership if pricing is competitive.
如果价格具有竞争力，预计美国消费者不会介意这项业务由一家中国公司来提供。
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.
阿里巴巴为阿里云制定了远大计划。目前阿里云约占该公司收入的1%，但它为阿里巴巴的核心电商业务提供支持，而且长期来看将发挥关键作用。阿里巴巴计划进行大量数据汇集和分析工作，其中包括消费者行为数据，公司认为云计算是实现这一计划的关键。
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 JD.com’s JD 0.69% better-than-expected quarterly results revived concerns that Alibaba’s expansion is slowing.
阿里巴巴需要寻找方式，来维持一直以来的飞速增长。周二，该公司股价创上市以来新低，原因是竞争对手京东的季度业务好于预期，这让人们再次开始担心阿里巴巴的扩张速度正在放慢。