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The logo for Amazon Web Services Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc., is displayed on an Apple Inc. iPhone in an arranged photograph taken in the Brooklyn Borough of New York, U.S., on Monday, Jan. 27, 2020. Amazon.com Inc. is scheduled to release earnings figures on January 30.Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg

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By Matt Day, Ian King, and Dina Bass

December 1, 2020 at 5:48 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud computing division is adding products that help customers maintain local control of their data, a bet that could help it fend off rivals Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google.

Amazon Web Services has a wide lead in selling on-demand software services, a business built on the economies of scale provided by vast server farms in data centers. Last year, the company went small, for the first time selling services for customers’ own data centers. The move acknowledged demand from customers requiring faster processing and the need to meet regulatory requirements by storing information inside their own walls.