Amazon launched Amazon Web Services in 2006, adding cloud computing to its businesses as its market value soared.
Amazon Web Services began offering core infrastructure services in 2006, including Amazon Simple Storage Service and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. These products let customers rent storage and computing capacity over the internet instead of purchasing and maintaining all the required hardware themselves.
The cloud division grew from tools built to support Amazon’s own online retail operations. AWS later became a major provider for startups, governments, universities, and large corporations. Its services expanded into databases, analytics, machine learning, networking, and application development.
AWS is often confused with Amazon’s retail website because both are part of Amazon.com, Inc. They serve different purposes: the retail business sells goods and services to consumers, while AWS supplies technology infrastructure and software services to organizations.