In COVID-19 crisis public cloud computing is an unsung hero

The growing coronavirus crisis has been a test like no other of the ability of online applications to dramatically, reliably and securely scale—a remarkable feat only possible because of publiclouds and their companion technologies.Office closures, social distancing and shelter-in-place orders have resulted in a massive and sustained surge in users of collaboration, shopping and entertainment solutions as the entire world converts personal interactions to virtual ones.So far, that unprecedented shift has gone off with barely a stutter. As millions around the world strive to remain productive, and fight boredom, public cloud has enabled video conferencing, remote project collaboration, e-commerce, education, gaming and streaming video companies to meet spectacular and unplanned-for demand in a way that would have been impossible a decade ago.While application vendors like Zoom Video, Slack, and Netflix are at the forefront of public consciousness these days, behind the scenes, Amazon Web Services which supports all those webscale companies has been the essential player in enabling them to accommodate a world in crisis.