Tim Bray, Amazon's former Vice President suggested that Amazon should spin off Amazon Web Services

Tim Bray, Amazon's former Vice President who suddenly resigned in May is calling on the company to spin-off its cloud-computing business Amazon Web Services. According to Bray, spinning off Amazon Web Services would add to the development of AWS. In a Squawk Box interview on Friday, Bray added that the company would no longer risk alienating potential clients who are already becoming tired of working with a competitor. 

“That’s a headwind because you could be reluctant to sign a deal with a web services operator if you’re worried that by doing so you’re funding one of your competitors,” Bray said. “I think it would unleash AWS’s growth, which is already very good if it were not joined at the hip with Amazon.”

AWS is one of the best Amazon services and profit drivers. In fact, in the first quarter report submitted by the company, it was revealed that AWS's generated an operating income of $3.08 billion, which is 77% of Amazon's total income. This implies that the company made most of its money from this service. However, it is noteworthy that AWS only represents 13.5% of Amazon's total revenue for the quarter.

In May, Tim Bray retired from Amazon via a fierce blog post and revealed that the company is planning to fire two of its user experience designers, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa. He said that the two designers are both outspoken critics of the company's labor practices. Also, he said Amazon's decision to fire the two designers is “evidence of a vein of toxicity running through the company culture” and remaining at Amazon would have meant “signing off on actions I despised.”

Notwithstanding, Bray has stated similar reasons when he breaks up with the company in the past. 

Aside from his recent spin-off suggestion to the company. Bray has once suggested that the company should split off AWS so as to contain the looming antitrust investigation.

Reports revealed that Amazon's cloud business is already undergoing antitrust scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission. The antitrust scrutiny is focused on the company's retail operations. Amazon is currently being investigated by the House Judiciary Committee which handles the investigation of big technology companies. 

Andy Jassy, the CEO of AWS maintained that Amazon would follow all the rules and regulations guiding the antitrust investigation. He said the company will comply with the US law if there is any need for a spinoff. However, as it is, there is no point separating AWS now.