Question

求翻译下面这段英文.....

ELECTRICITY was once generated where it was used; now it comes from the grid. So it is with computing power, once the province of mainframes and personal computers, and now moving into the “cloud”—networks of data centres that use the internet to supply all kinds of services, from e-mail and social networks to data storage and analysis.
The rise of cloud computing is rapid, inexorable and causing huge upheaval in the tech industry. The old guard is suffering: this week’s $67 billion merger between Dell and EMC, makers of computers and storage devices respectively, was a marriage forced by the rise of the cloud (see article). Disruptive newcomers are blooming: if Amazon’s cloud-computing unit were a stand-alone public company, it would probably be worth almost as much as Dell and EMC combined.
The gains for customers have been equally dramatic. Compared with older IT systems, cloud computing is often much cheaper. It adds tremendous flexibility: firms that need more computing capacity no longer have to spend weeks adding new servers and installing software. In the cloud they can get hold of it in minutes. Their applications can be updated continually, rather than just every few months. Individual users can reach their e-mails, files and photos from any device. And cloud services also tend to be more secure, since providers know better than their customers how to protect their computing systems against hackers.
But cloud computing makes one perennial problem worse. In the old IT world, once a firm or a consumer had decided on an operating system or database, it was difficult and costly to switch to another. In the cloud this “lock in” is even worse. Cloud providers go to great lengths to make it easy to upload data. They accumulate huge amounts of complex information, which cannot easily be moved to an alternative provider.
完整版戳这里：http:// www .economist.com/news/leaders/21674714-shifting-computer-power-cloud-brings-many-benefitsbut-dont-ignore-risks-skys-limit
网址请把WWW前后的空格去掉~~~谢谢

Answer 1

电这个东西,原本是即发即用不离原地的.而如今随著电网的发明,电走进了千家万户;同样,计算能力,这一原本属於主机与个人电脑的能力,如今也进入了"云时代".所谓"云",指的是一种数据网络,可以通过互联网提供各种服务.自电邮与社交,到数据存储解析,无一不能.

云计算的发展颇为迅猛.为技术产业带去了巨大颠覆,也使其面临各种挑战.EMC是一家电脑并存储设备的制造商,本周,由於云计算的迅速崛起,而不得不选择了与戴尔合,成为一个67,000,000,000美元的巨大个体.长江後浪摧前浪,如果亚马逊的云计算单元是一个独立运营的上市公司,那它的价值可能就与合并後的Dell与EMC旗鼓相当了.

云计算的快速发展同样使消费者受益良多.与传统IT系统相比,云计算成本更为低廉,具有极强的灵活性.那些需要计算能力的单位,再也不需要花上几个星期来安装新服务器及软件了.在云计算的海洋中,这些唾手可得,其软件也可以持续更新,而不必隔几个月便一更.云计算的个人用户,可以通过任何设备访问电邮\文件与相片;此外,由於服务商们比顾客更了解如何保护数据不受黑客损害,云服务也更加可靠安全
不过,在云计算的影响下,有一个顽疾也随之日益恶化.在旧式IT时代,如果一家公司或用户,决定好了用什麼操作系统或数据库,他们就很难推翻决定,即便可以,代价也颇为高昂.而在"云计算"时代,这一问题更为突出.云供应商不得不费尽周章来简化数据上传程序,他们积累的大量复杂信息也因而更难以移给别的供应商.,