Amazon building tech business for the long haul

Las Vegas

AMAZON Web Services (AWS) wants to be a long-lived technology company. Its strategy hinges on an astonishing level of automation in computer programming and maintenance, coupled with offering new products and services at a rate none of the old-guard companies seem able to match.

The idea seems to be to dominate not so much by the traditional "vendor lock-in" of hooking customers on proprietary technology but by making itself the centre of the styles and habits of cloud computing. At least some of its customers seem to think that will work.