Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched in 2006 with Simple Storage Service (S3) and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). The idea — renting computing infrastructure on demand rather than buying and managing servers — was pioneered by AWS and essentially created the modern cloud computing industry.
Today, AWS is the largest cloud platform in the world with over 30% market share, ahead of Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. Annual revenue exceeded $90 billion in 2023, and AWS generates the majority of Amazon’s operating profit despite being a fraction of its total revenue.
AWS offers over 200 services spanning compute (EC2, Lambda, ECS), storage (S3, EBS), databases (RDS, DynamoDB, Aurora), machine learning (SageMaker, Bedrock), analytics, IoT, security, and much more. Its global infrastructure includes 33 geographic regions with over 100 availability zones.
The platform serves millions of customers, from individual developers to the world’s largest enterprises. Netflix, Airbnb, NASA, the CIA, and countless startups run on AWS. The company maintains its own network of subsea fiber optic cables and has built custom chips — Graviton (compute), Trainium (AI training), and Inferentia (AI inference).
AWS re:Invent, the company’s annual conference in Las Vegas, draws over 50,000 attendees and has become the largest cloud computing event in the world. AWS certifications are among the most sought-after credentials in the IT industry.
Led by Matt Garman (who succeeded Adam Selipsky as CEO in 2024), AWS operates as a division of Amazon but functions largely as an independent business. AWS’s customer obsession, rapid pace of feature releases, and breadth of services have kept it ahead despite aggressive competition.
