From Amazon.com, Inc.’s (AMZN) Q408 conference call on cloud computing:
Q: If you could just comment on the early progress of your large company focus, cloud computing initiative that you recently launched with Gemini and whether you think that you would pursue further initiatives or partnerships in that area to target enterprise level customers.
A: The Elastic Compute Cloud and the Simple Storage Service are already being used by a number of enterprise level customers, and we expect that trend to continue.
Q: Does the current environment, as enterprise level spending slows down, create increased interest or open up the conversation around the web services? As the budgets become tighter, as you look ahead for enterprises out there, does that open up the conversation for what you can provide larger companies on web services, or is that still ways to go in terms of that conversation with larger Fortune 500 accounts in the market?
A: I think it does open up those conversations. The people are, in this macro environment, looking for ways to save money, and cloud computing does do that... If you’re looking for a silver lining in the macro environment, I think that is – what you are suggesting is correct.
Q: Do you think it’s still too early to see the impact of that in terms of, I guess, conversations? Or are we just still too early in terms of the business cycle and the downturn?
A: No, I think on the edges, you’re seeing it already. And I suspect that that momentum will continue.
For more on cloud computing see Tom Evslin's post here.
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