Can Microsoft beat Amazon Web Services？ 10 tech execs weigh in

Right now, Amazon Web Services has the biggest share in the cloud market, but Microsoft's cloud is catching up as well.Microsoft has been promoting its hybrid cloud strategy, artificial intelligence abilities, and relationships with enterprise customers.Business Insider spoke with leaders and developers at 10 tech companies on the state of the cloud wars and whether Microsoft can beat AWS.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.When Microsoft reported its earnings last quarter, it said its cloud business grew 73%. Microsoft is locked in competition with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud for a larger slice of the cloud market. While AWS has the bulk of the market share, Microsoft's Azure cloud has seen major growth in recent years as well, taking advantage of its longstanding history with enterprise customers. Microsoft has ramped up its artificial intelligence abilities. And it's been a longtime supporter of hybrid cloud technology, which allows customers to run their workloads on both remote cloud servers and in their own data centers — Google and AWS are just starting to introduce similar products.Read more: $30 billion Paychex explains why it's betting on Microsoft's cloud, which it says 'far exceeded' its rivalsMicrosoft also has an advantage in winning over retail customers, who may see Amazon as a looming competitor. And lately, Microsoft has been wrestling with AWS over a $10 billion cloud contract with the Pentagon that could change the balance of power in the cloud business.Business Insider spoke with numerous Microsoft customers at its annual Microsoft Build developer conference in Seattle last week. These developers and executives have used tools from Microsoft's cloud, and in many cases, from Amazon's AWS as well.If you're trying to get an on-the-ground snapshot of the current state of affairs in the cloud wars, these are the people you want to talk to. Here's what they have to say about the differences between the two cloud rivals, and about how Microsoft's effort to vanquish Amazon in this massive market is coming along: