Just How Big Is Amazon Web Services’ Lead? It Depends on Whom You Ask
It’s uncontested that Amazon’s cloud is by far the biggest. Details beyond that, however, are mighty scarce. None of the major cloud providers — Amazon or its chief public cloud rivals Microsoft and Google — are particularly transparent when it comes to the revenues and profits they derive from cloud, the number of servers they host, or anything at all, really.
That leaves us as the proverbial blind men and the elephant. So here are a few recent snapshots from researchers that may be helpful in fleshing out just how big Amazon Web Services really is..
Jillian Mirandi, senior analyst at Technology Business Research Group (TBRI), estimated that AWS will generate about $4.7 billion in revenue this year, while comparable estimated IaaS revenue for Microsoft and Google will be $156 million and $66 million, respectively. Amazon’s head start in this arena is a big reason for that delta: AWS launched in 2006 while Microsoft’s IaaS equivalent came online in April 2013, and Google Compute Engine debuted widely in December 2013.
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