AWS will become a $10bn business this year: Bezos

Amazon Web Services is on track to become a US$10 billion business before the end of this year, according to Amazon chief Jeff Bezos.

Bezos told shareholders this week the cloud business would hit the milestone at a speed faster than Amazon cracked US$100 billion in sales, which occurred earlier this year.

The cloud unit has one million individual users at last count, Bezos said.

Amazon took its first steps into cloud computing in 2006 with the launch of AWS and its S3 storage service.

Since then, the business has grown in terms of both its product offering and customer base, with some of the world's biggest companies - like Netflix and Adobe, to cite just two - relying on AWS infrastructure and services.

"Today, AWS offers more than 70 services for compute, storage, databases, analytics, mobile, internet of things, and enterprise applications," Bezos told shareholders.

"Many characterised AWS as a bold – and unusual – bet when we started. 'What does this have to do with selling books?' We could have stuck to the knitting. I’m glad we didn’t."

Bezos also today bestowed the CEO title on the head of AWS, Andy Jassy, as a recognition of his work growing the cloud unit to its current heights. The CEO title was also given to consumer chief Jeff Wilke.

"... As we've grown as a company ... we've decided it makes sense to change the titles of the leaders of those businesses," Amazon said in a blog post.

"This is not a reorganisation but rather a recognition of the roles they’ve played for a while."

The company currently has 33 availability zones worldwide and plans to open a further 11 throughout the year. 

It is also widely expected to start servicing customers from its two data centres in Sydney - which it started building in 2014 and iTnews understands are now complete - imminently.

AWS reported a 69 percent jump in revenue for its most recent fourth quarter to bring in US$2.4 billion (A$3.4 billion).

The figure took sales for the full 2015 year to US$7.9 billion compared to US$4.6 billion the year prior.