Amazon Web Services – Unstoppable!

Even with hyper-scale competitors Microsoft and Google Cloud Platform growing their revenue with triple-digit speed, Amazon maintained a blowout lead in the market, while at the same time strengthening its vaunted position as the fast-paced innovator beating any and all comers.

AWS prepared to close out 2016 owning more than one- third of the world's cloud spend, more than the next three competitors -- Microsoft, IBM and Google -- combined.

To maintain that dominance, AWS continued to build out its infrastructure globally, added new features at an accelerated clip, introduced surprising partnerships, and promoted its longtime leader to the formal position of CEO.

(For more of our 2016 retrospective, check out 'CRN's 2016 Tech Year In Review.')