Amazon’s AWS shows signs of weakness as competitors charge ahead

It’s no exaggeration to say Amazon.com Inc. invented the cloud business. Amazon Web Services took the corporate data center apart and split it into pieces, building pay-as-you go services delivered with remarkable speed and consistency. The effort brushed aside incumbents, transformed an internal startup into Amazon’s profit engine and gave executives in Seattle the power to dictate terms to much of the industry.Now, suddenly, AWS is struggling. On Monday, Amazon’s cloud unit suffered one of the worst outag ...