Correct, see how much profit AWS contributed to Amazon in the past quarters.
> I've been an engineer at both companies
Same here, so I offer my perspective.
> Google is much better at this stuff
Not much, but noticeably better across the board. Overall it's substantially better when combine everything together. But as others point out, the technical superiority does not account 100% of the quality of product offering. Being in 2 companies, I think you have similar experiences. Otherwise, GCP should already eat AWS in 2012.
> Google will have little difficulty closing that gap and pulling ahead
I think so. But my expectation is that Google needs operate Cloud as its top priority, and treat AWS as a tougher competitor than MSFT in the search/browser war. The thing is, that Cloud is a much much bigger market than internet ads. The race will be long and difficult to predict. Amazon is a much more formidable competitor than MSFT. They have proven to be the best in retaining customer and build a brand. They are also extremely fast in execution. And they are not afraid to try crazy ideas and abandon them if proven wrong.