Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenues grew 32% in the first quarter of the year, as greater demand for cloud computing continued into 2021.
The cloud computing arm of Amazon brought in $13.5 billion between January and March, jumping from $12.75 billion in the final quarter of 2020.
AWS has long maintained its position as the world's largest cloud provider and is often Amazon's most reliable source of income, contributing billions to its overall profits every quarter. Its success is part of the reason that its CEO, Andy Jassy, is set to replace Jeff Bezos at the end of Q2.
In a statement, Bezos referred to AWS as Amazon's 15-year old child that had "grown-up fast" and come into its own.
"In just 15 years, AWS has become a $54 billion annual sales run rate business competing against the world's largest technology companies, and its growth is accelerating - up 32% year over year," Bezos said.
"Companies from Airbnb to McDonald's to Volkswagen come to AWS because we offer what is by far the broadest set of tools and services available, and we continue to invent relentlessly on their behalf. We love AWS, and we're proud to have them in the family."
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Microsoft also recorded increased revenues for 2021 Q1, with a third consecutive quarter of 50% growth. However, the Redmond firm still only accounts for 19% of the overall cloud market, compared to 32% taken up by AWS.
Cloud emerged as a winner across all sectors over the last year, according to Canalys research analyst Blake Murray. As such, organisations have become dependent on digital services to maintain operations and adapt.
"Though 2020 saw large-scale cloud infrastructure spending, most enterprise workloads have not yet transitioned to the cloud," said Murray. "Migration and cloud spend will continue as customer confidence rises during 2021. Large projects that were postponed last year will resurface, while new use cases will expand the addressable market."
