How the Cloud Makes Work Go Faster
Technology has been accused of making many a job disappear, like those on the production line or in the accounting office. And it is not done yet.
A company often resembles its communication and technology system. In the era of cloud computing into which the tech industry is moving , that suggests that companies will have smaller departments, quickly analyzing data and endlessly experimenting.
人們指控科技讓許多工作消失，像是那些生產線上或會計室裡的工作。而且它還沒停手。
什麼樣的通訊科技系統，就會造就什麼樣的公司。在這個科技產業進入雲端運算的時代，這就意味各公司行號的部門將變得更小，快速地分析數據，以及不斷進行實驗。
That means change is on the way at the many companies that will adopt cloud computing over the next few years. This is not good news for middle managers.
“Technology shapes styles of work,” said Ed Lazowska, who holds a chair in computer science and engineering at the University of Washington. “One critical advantage of the cloud is that sharing becomes dramatically easier.” He foresees more collaboration and outsourcing of work, and more specialization into whatever a worker, team or company does well.
這意味許多公司正面對著改變，接下來幾年將採用雲端運算。這對中階經理而言可不是好消息。
華盛頓大學資訊工程系講座教授艾德．拉佐斯卡說：「科技形塑工作型態。雲端的一項決定性優勢是，分享變得極端地容易。」他預見未來工作將有更多合作和外包，且無論員工、團隊或公司都更能發揮所長，進一步走向專業化。
In cloud computing, computer servers are pooled through management software. Power is scaled up or down depending on the workload, and the system is continually reconfigured, based on data about the next workload. To see how this changes a workplace, look at the structure of the biggest cloud companies around.
“You learn to harness feedback,” said David Campbell, the head of engineering at Microsoft Azure, the name of Microsoft’s cloud. Early on, this means lots of “A/B testing,” or putting up two versions of a website to quickly see which the customers prefer.
在雲端運算中，電腦伺服器透過管理軟體而聚集，運算能力根據工作量而上下調節，且電腦系統依據有關下一批工作的資料，隨時重新規畫設定。為了了解這個因素如何改變工作場所，且讓我們一探數家最大雲端公司的組織架構。
微軟的雲端公司「MicrosoftAzure」工程部門主管大衛．坎貝爾說：「你學習如何利用反饋。」較早期時，這指的是大量的「A/B版本測試」，也就是放上兩個版本的網站，迅速了解顧客偏愛哪一種。
Azure makes engineering changes by moving parts of its customers’ traffic into the new stuff, seeing if that works as predicted and then building up. Checking expectations and hypotheses in real time, Mr. Campbell said, “takes hours, instead of months and years in the legacy world.”
Google also works in a data- fixated culture. Every meeting seems to be full of young engineers scrambling to amass the most compelling facts, trying to create something else they can watch customers use, then build on that. The big loser in this model may be the managers in charge of scheduling things, since it is all happening too fast.
At Amazon Web Services, which has built the world’s biggest cloud computing business, work is divided into teams of the smallest size necessary to figure out what the customer is doing with an important product. That team then quickly adapts the product to work better and looks for new insight.
Azure把顧客的部分網路流量移至新網站，據以做工程上的改變，觀察其效果是否合乎預期，接著繼續加以發展。坎貝爾說，即時檢查期望與假設「費時數小時，而非過往世界中的數月或數年」。
Google也是在數據掛帥的文化下工作。每場會議似乎都滿是年輕的工程師，爭相累積最令人注目的事實，試著創造他們可以看著顧客使用的另一樣產品，接著發展它。這種模式的大輸家可能是負責排程的經理，因為一切發生得太快了。
在全世界最大的雲端運算公司亞馬遜網路服務，工作分割成最小尺寸的團隊，找出顧客正使用一項重要產品做些什麼。接著團隊迅速調整產品，讓它運作更佳，並尋找新發現。
It is not clear that any big company has perfected this new style of work. Even so, they all say their non-tech customers are badgering them to determine how they can break into smaller customer-focused teams, loosely collaborating and intent on moving information faster. The survivors will be good at collaboration, good at statistics and good at figuring out what the company needs to build next.
“Companies tell us, ‘We want to be Google,’ ” said Greg DeMichillie, the head of Google’s cloud business. “People will be more analytical, experimental, faster, more data driven at work.”
目前並不清楚是否有哪家大公司已讓這種新工作型態臻於完善，即便如此，他們都說，不懂科技的顧客仍纏著他們不放，因此決定打散成更小、聚焦顧客的團隊，採取較不密集的合作方式，而專注於更快速地移動資訊。存活者將善於合作，長於統計，亦精於找出公司下一步要發展的事項。
Google雲端事業主管葛瑞格．德米歇爾說：「公司行號跟我們說『我們想成為Google』，人們在工作上將更具分析能力、實驗精神、更快及更數據導向。」
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