Amazon's cloud is one of the fastest-growing software businesses in history

Amazon.com stands to earn $5 billion this year from its cloud computing business, according to a report by Bloomberg Businessweek, an increase of 58 percent over 2013. Pacific Crest Securities, which conducted the research, predicts the revenue will top $6.5 billion next year.
 
This increase makes Amazon's cloud business the fastest-growing software venture since Google came along. Amazon's cloud growth has eclipsed Microsoft and Oracle, among others, the report states.
 
Amazon's quarterly revenue from its cloud services is approaching that of traditional server makers such as Dell, IBM and Hewlett-Packard. Its business model of renting computing services by the hour instead of companies investing in hardware is credited with driving the revenue surge.

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