AWS has remained strong so far in 2023, with parent company Amazon reporting Q1 revenue this week of $21.4 billion worldwide, up 16% from a year ago. The rate of growth has slowed, with some analysts forecasting it to drop to single digits this year, according to a Bloomberg report. But for now, AWS is performing well, and now comprises 17% of the entire company's revenue.

Amazon has famously announced there will be 27,000 layoffs this year, and its latest round did focus on AWS. Even son, one analyst, Andrew Lipsman of Insider Intelligence, was quoted as saying that AWS is a “key profit center” and “may be (helping Amazon) turn the corner.”

Microsoft also reported continued Azure strength, saying this week that overall company revenue growth of $4.8 billion in Q1 was “driven by Azure and other cloud services.” Google reported clod revenue of $7.4 billion in Q1, up 28% from a year ago.

The continued growth of cloud computing can lead to speculation about when it becomes synonymous with enterprise IT. In a recent article, InfoWorld's David Linthicum pondered this question, stating that “cloud will be baked into all of IT - just another building block of how we automate business,” while wondering when the industry's “fascination (with it) will fade.”

He said that even though cloud can be seen as becoming more of a commodity, he also thinks “cloud computing could become more exciting, thanks to (emerging technologies like) more advanced AI and machine learning services, such as generative AI.” He also noted less latency and improved performance coming from an increasing number of edge deployments, “driving renewed interest in cloud computing.”

Photo from AWS.