Cloud gained a new connotation with when individual data center creation and services graduated to the next level, when all that a data center provided or more, could be provided for, as a service for a fee. This technical entity is known as the cloud. The Cloud refers to cloud computing; a delivery of computing services – servers, storage, databases, networking, software and more – over the internet. They provide services on demand and provide for a nature of elasticity which was unimagined of. You take care of your business and they will take care of the rest.
Covid brought Cloud to the centerstage of our existence, seeing one of its kind cloud transitions. Our existence started revolving around the cloud. With some indications of cloud business stagnating post-Covid, it is now taking off with the same promise as at the time of the ongoing pandemic. Cloud started in the year 2006 with the official launch of Amazon Web Services in March 2006. In 19 years of the existence of the cloud, there are many local players trying their level best to get a piece of the pie in different countries and at different levels.
Globally, there are only three players, AWS as it is called, followed by Microsoft Intelligent Cloud, led by Azure and followed by Google Cloud Platform (GCP). As the cloud market has been growing consistently it was fascinating to watch only three global cloud players, consolidating themselves. The last market entries have been 2008, and it is so intriguing to believe that no company has gained access to this elite club. With AI hitting the market the complexity of the game in every dimension is bound to change drastically. AWS earned a revenue of $29.3 billion in Q1, 2025. It has been a 17% year-over- year increase. AWS thought that it stood a chance to become a multi hundreds billion dollar revenue run rate business and they feel that AI has completely changed the rules of the game. It can transform into something much larger.
Google Cloud revenues grew 38% year-over-year to $12.3 billion. Microsoft revenues from Intelligent Cloud segment was $26.8 billion, a 21% increase. What is breathtaking is the way AI is gaining entry. In Q1 2025, AWS expanded its AI portfolio with major releases under the Amazon Nova family; Nova Sonic, Nova Act SDK and Nova Premier. New third party foundation models were also added to Bedrock, including (Claude 3.7 Sonnet of Anthropic, DeepSeeks R1, Meta’s LIama4 and Mistral’s Pixtral Large. Amazon Q Developer now supports languages such as Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, French, Korean and Portuguese. This would enable natural language conversations in multiple development environments. Who is leading the global cloud pack is anyone’s guess.
CLOUD HAS BECOME AN ON DEMAND UTILITY FROM A CAPITAL INTENSIVE DIGITAL ASSET.