Cloud boosts profits at Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet

The moneymaking machines at the core of Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, are notably different. But the respective kings of online retailing, software and internet search should all credit a relatively new line of business for lifting their financial results.

In their quarterly earnings reports on Thursday, the three said cloud computing — through which they rent computing services and online access to software hosted in their data centres — was growing faster than their larger, older businesses.

The impact of cloud computing was particularly noticeable at Amazon, far and away the leader in this still-young business. The