Cloud boom boosts Google, Microsoft with surge in stocks

San Francisco

AMAZON.COM, Google, and Microsoft all topped profit estimates last quarter, highlighting the widening gulf between companies that deliver computing via server-laden warehouses and a generation of latecomers to the cloud boom. Together, the three companies added more than US$90 billion in market cap following their earnings reports last Thursday.

The trio shares a reliance on technology that comes from powerful machines lashed together in bunkers the size of football fields. These data centres are capable of providing a broad range of services at a low cost-be it Microsoft's personal and business software, Amazon's e-commerce and computing power, or Google's Web search and advertising algorithms. Contrast that with technology firms, such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, EMC, and Oracle, which are suffering from slowing growth or declines as cloud operators shun traditional hardware, software, and services.