In 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) began offering IT infrastructure services to businesses in the form of web services – now commonly known as cloud computing. One of the key benefits of cloud computing is the opportunity to replace up-front capital infrastructure expenses with low variable costs that scale as a business grows. With the Cloud, businesses no longer need to plan for and procure servers and other IT infrastructure weeks or months in advance. Instead, they can instantly spin up hundreds or thousands of servers in minutes and deliver results faster.

The AWS platform has grown rapidly since the launch of the first service and it is now the underlying infrastructure for businesses around the world from start-ups to enterprises to government agencies. AWS has hundreds of thousands of customers in over 190 countries leveraging the services from infrastructure locations in the U.S., Europe, South America, Singapore, and Japan.

Companies around the world using AWS range from smaller, fast-growing companies such as Playfish, Airbnb and Pinterest to larger companies such as Shell Oil, NASA and News International.