Datamation Logo

Amazon Web Service Continues to Grow Revenues

January 29, 2016
Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

While Amazon’s core business remains its consumer sales, the cloud was a major area of growth in 2015. Amazon reported its fourth quarter and full-year fiscal 2015 financial results on January 28, once again showing the strong impact of Amazon Web Services.

For the quarter, Amazon reported net sales of $35.7 billion, for a 22 percent year-over-year gain. Amazon’s full-year net sales came in at $107.0 billion, up by 20 percent from 2014. Looking specifically at the cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS) reported fourth quarter revenue of $2.4 billion up by 69 percent from 2014.

Cloud Storage and Backup Benefits

Protecting your company’s data is critical. Cloud storage with automated backup is scalable, flexible and provides peace of mind. Cobalt Iron’s enterprise-grade backup and recovery solution is known for its hands-free automation and reliability, at a lower cost. Cloud backup that just works.

SCHEDULE FREE CONSULT/DEMO

Amazon only began to publicly report its AWS revenue in April of 2015, during the company’s first quarter fiscal 2015 earnings call. For the first quarter, AWS revenue was reported at $1.57 billion for a 49 percent year-over-year gain, in the second quarter AWS reported net sales of $1.8 Billion, for an 81 percent year-over-year gain. In the third quarter Amazon’s cloud business reported revenue of $2.1 billion for a 78 percent year-over-year gain.

During Amazon’s earnings call, CFO Brian Olsavsky was asked if there was any deceleration in the growth trajectory for AWS revenues. Olsavsky commented that while 69 percent year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter is less than AWS’ second or third quarter gains, the business is still growing rapidly. That said, Olsavsky was unable to provide specific revenue guidance target for AWS in Q1 of fiscal 2016.

“We don’t give guidance by segment, so we cannot really comment on AWS specifically in Q1,” Olsavsky said.

Overall, Olsavsky noted that AWS revenue is on a 10 billion run rate at the end of fourth quarter. That revenue rate is also happening while Amazon continues to lower its prices for cloud services.

“We had a price reduction in January for our EC2 services and it was our 51st price reduction since we launched AWS,” Olsavsky said.

While price is important, he added that features and service are too. To that end, Olsavsky emphasized that AWS added a staggering 722 new features and services in 2015.

“We feel we have a lead in this space and we don’t take it for granted and we want to serve customers better each year,” Olsavsky said.

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at Datamation and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

  SEE ALL
CLOUD ARTICLES
 

Subscribe to Data Insider

Learn the latest news and best practices about data science, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, data security, and more.

Datamation Logo

Datamation is the leading industry resource for B2B data professionals and technology buyers. Datamation's focus is on providing insight into the latest trends and innovation in AI, data security, big data, and more, along with in-depth product recommendations and comparisons. More than 1.7M users gain insight and guidance from Datamation every year.

Advertisers

Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on Datamation and our other data and technology-focused platforms.

Advertise with Us

Our Brands


Privacy Policy Terms & Conditions About Contact Advertise California - Do Not Sell My Information

Property of TechnologyAdvice.
© 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.