Amazon launched Amazon Web Services in 2006, helping build one of the world’s largest cloud businesses.
Amazon Web Services, usually called AWS, began with services such as Amazon Simple Storage Service and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. These products allowed businesses and developers to rent storage and computing power over the internet instead of purchasing and maintaining all the necessary servers themselves.
AWS became an important reason Amazon developed beyond online retail. Its infrastructure serves websites, applications, databases, media services, and artificial-intelligence workloads for organizations around the world. The division’s scale and profitability have also made it a major contributor to Amazon’s overall financial results and market valuation.
A common mix-up is treating AWS as a separate public company. It is a business segment owned by Amazon.com, Inc. Amazon itself began as an online bookstore in 1994 before expanding into marketplaces, logistics, digital media, devices, and cloud computing.