Amazon boosts cloud-computing sales, seizing on US budget cuts

Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, is expanding its cloud-computing sales to the US government, joining Google and Microsoft in seeking federal orders for Web-based services.

Amazon says it has gone from having no dedicated government sales division a few years ago to providing cloud-based computer services in 100 government offices including federal agencies such as the Treasury and State departments. Amazon opened data centers in Oregon in August focused on government clients. Companies are targeting the U.S. government as it cuts costs by shifting $20 billion of the $80 billion in yearly information-technology spending to cloud computing, which lets users share resources such as data storage and software. Amazon “can run it better for the government,” Herman Leung, analyst at Susquehanna International Group in San Francisco, said in an interview. “As you gain critical mass, those cost savings you can pass on to consumers.”