What you need to know
- Zoom and AWS will extend their partnership and integrate cloud and video services.
- Zoom has already announced that its video meeting service is coming to Amazon Echo Show devices before the year's end.
- Amazon Web Services has been provided cloud services for Zoom since 2011.
2020 was a big year for Zoom, which has reported its second straight quarter with revenue growth over 300% YoY. In terms of customers, Zoom has stated that it has roughly 433,700 customers, which is up about 17% from the previous quarter. Managing this many customers means having a reliable service on the backend, and for this Zoom has announced a strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services as its preferred cloud provider.
"COVID-19 changed everything for Zoom... and AWS was there from the beginning"
The new collaboration extends the companies' existing relationship, which will now see AWS working to expand and scale Zoom's services to meet customer demand. Zoom regularly sees over 300 million calls since April 2020, a big jump from the 10 million it saw just last December. AWS provides Zoom with the cloud infrastructure and security to handle the sensitive needs of its customer base, as well as access to over 1,000 virtual desktops to assist with customer support. Because of the successful growth of this year Zoom CEO, Eric S. Yuan, looks forward to expanding already successful partnership between the two companies.
"Faced with unprecedented global demand this past year, we've been able to handle it in significant part by running the substantial majority of our cloud-based workloads on our preferred cloud provider, AWS, and relying on AWS's performance and scalability."
As a result of the new partnership, the companies plan to bring their respective expertise to the table. Zoom has already announced that it will be integrated within Amazon Echo Show devices, and Amazon will also bring its Alexa for Business services into Zoom Rooms, representing just the start of their collaborative efforts as they look to further integration in the future.
Having more support from Amazon may help Zoom brace for the potential impact of the Covid vaccines currently in development. With both Pfizer and Moderna seeking approval to distribute their vaccines, 2021 could potentially see a drop in growth for Zoom. This quarter's growth was an impressive 329%, which decreased from 355% the previous quarter. Upon the announcement of the vaccines', the company's stock dropped 17%, showing just how tied the company's success is to the pandemic. Only time will tell just how things play out for both the vaccines and Zoom, if and when it becomes safer to return to the office.
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