CSPs, Enterprise, Content

Amazon AWS Cloud Quarterly Sales Top $10 Billion

Amazon Web Service (AWS) cloud's quarterly net sales topped $10.2 billion in Q1 of fiscal 2020, up sharply from $7.7 billion in Q1 of fiscal 2019, the e-commerce giant disclosed today.

Also, AWS operating income was $3.075 billion in Q1 2020, up from $2.223 billion in Q1 2019.

The strong results complete a phenomenal earnings week for the three leading public cloud services providers (CSPs). Microsoft Azure revenues and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) revenues also surged in recent months, those two companies announced earlier this week.

The CSP growth reinforces a familiar trend: Businesses of all sizes are shifting more workloads to the cloud amid Work From Home (WFH) requirements during the coronavirus pandemic. The world's Top 200 Public Cloud MSPs, no doubt, continue to monetize the WFH trend.

Still, Amazon was careful not to crow too loudly about AWS success. Instead, most of the company's Q1 2020 financial report emphasized social responsibility during the pandemic -- including numerous steps to protect employees. Some Amazon warehouse employees had criticized the company in recent weeks, claiming proper social distancing and protective equipment were not in place.

To some extent, the public cloud revenue figures also silence recent rumors that customers are pressuring AWS, Azure and Google Cloud for discounts and pricing relief amid the pandemic. We're double-checking earnings calls for each company to see if cloud margins were in any way pressured by the pandemic.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.