Users of Amazon Web Services (AWS), the retail giant’s highly successful cloud computing arm, are now able to pre-fund their accounts with cash, the company has said.
The new service, called Advance Pay, seems to be available to US customers only for now, however it doesn’t mean they’ll be charged in advanced, though, as the funds will only be withdrawn at the usual billing time.
“With Advance Pay, you can now pay for your AWS usage in advance, and pay your future invoices automatically,” a company announcement read. “Once you add funds to Advance Pay, AWS will automatically use them to pay for your invoices when they become due for payment.”
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Interested parties can register for Advance Pay from their Billing and Cost Management console, under the Payments page. In order to add the funds to the Advance Pay system, customers will need to use their U.S. bank account, or electronic funds transfer. The Advance Pay page also offers funding history, as well as a cost management guide.
AWS boom
“Alternatively, you can generate funding documents through the console and use electronic funds transfers,” AWS added.
In order to improve their customer experience, facilitate remote working, speed up time to market and cut down on costs and expenses, many businesses - from enterprises, across SMBs, to micro-businesses, engaged in digital transformation.
Cloud computing sits at the very core of digital transformation. It allows organizations to migrate both their applications and data from on-prem infrastructure onto the internet, enabling their employees to access them from virtually anywhere, and practically any device.
Besides current market leaders AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) are the biggest cloud service providers at the moment. While AWS earned $386bn in revenue last year, Microsoft Azure earned $50bn, and GCP earned $13bn.
Market analysts Technavio expect the cloud computing market to reach $287.03 billion by 2025, with the market's growth momentum expected to decelerate at a CAGR of over 17% during the forecast period.
Gartner, on the other hand, expects worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services to grow 23.1% in 2021 to total $332.3 billion.
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