Which company operates the AWS cloud-computing platform?

Amazon operates the AWS cloud-computing platform.

Amazon Web Services, commonly called AWS, launched in 2006 with services including Amazon Simple Storage Service and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. It allowed organizations to rent computing, storage, and other infrastructure over the internet instead of purchasing and maintaining all of their own servers.

AWS grew from Amazon’s internal experience building scalable systems for its retail business. It became a major cloud provider serving startups, governments, universities, and large corporations around the world.

A common mix-up is confusing AWS with Amazon’s online shopping marketplace. They are parts of the same corporation but serve different purposes: Amazon’s retail business sells goods, while AWS provides technology infrastructure and related services. Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud are its major competitors.