In 2021, Alphabet’s (Google) Cloud Business was an over $19 billion unit within Alphabet’s Google overall business model; to gain a bit of context, Microsoft intelligent cloud netted $60 billion, and Amazon AWS netted over $62 billion in the same year.
Revenue Streams | Revenues | Operating Income |
Amazon AWS | $19.7B | $5.7B |
Microsoft Intelligent Cloud* | $20.9B | $8,7B |
Google Cloud | $6.27B | -0.858B |
The cloud business is among the most interesting industries of the last decade. Powering up a whole B2B and entperise ecosystem the cloud business has enabled the so-called Web2 or Web 2.0.
Indeed, when AWS officially launched, back in 2006, it was rolled out first as a Simple Storage Service, or S3, on March 14, 2006.ย
Over time it became a powerhouse which enabled hundreds of startups, and some of them became tech giants.
Indeed, still as of 2022, most of Netflix’s content is hosted on AWS.
Netflix never built its own data centers (today, Netflix is mostly hosted on Amazon AWS).

Therefore, the cloud business has been tied to the startup world for the last decade and it has actually empowered it.
Today, many tech startups worth billions have their whole infrastructure built on top of cloud providers like AWS and Azure.
That is how AWS has turned into a juggernaut. A company generating over $62 billion in revenues, by 2021, with astounding profit margins.

Initially the other key player in the cloud industry, Microsoft didn’t manage to successfully pick up traction, until the company re-focused its strategy toward cloud.
Today, cloud services are a key part of the overall Microsoft business model.

Not only Microsoft had to move its main productivity offering (Microsoft Office) in the cloud, to adapt to the new market context.
But it also had to employ an aggressive market entry strategy for Azure, which has now become a key competitor to AWS.
Read Next: Microsoft Business Model, Who Owns Microsoft?, Microsoft Organizational Structure, Microsoft SWOT Analysis, Microsoft Mission Statement, Microsoft Acquisitions, Microsoft Subsidiaries, Bill Gates Companies.
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