Amazon pioneered the idea of cloud services that allow individuals to build websites and other apps without using their own hardware. Google has also offered these services, but is repositioning itself to create a larger business out of cloud services. The IT market that spans hardware and software used to operate businesses is worth $600 billion, and cloud services have the potential to take a major share. Google is hoping to make its cloud service business even larger than its enormous ad business.

“According to James Staten, an analyst with tech research outfit Forrester, cloud computing will account for about 15 percent of this IT market by 2020 — that’s $40 billion — and much like Google, Amazon believes cloud services could become its biggest business,” reports Wired.

“It has become clear that the public cloud is the way of the future,” said Urs Holzle, head of Google’s technical infrastructure team. “One day, this could be bigger than ads. Certainly, in terms of market potential, it is.”

Google has just started to push its new cloud services, and will soon release details of the new specs. Its current cloud services run 4.75 million active applications, including Pulse and SnapChat. Google is aiming to increase this number and create more efficient cloud computing in its Google Cloud Engine for website developers.

“As this market grows, the bigger question is what role Google will play. It certainly has the technology and the talent to close the gap on Amazon,” concludes Wired. “Google is many things — a search company, an ad company, a map company, a phone company, a company that dabbles in everything from computerized eyewear to self-driving cars — but more than anything else, it’s a company that has mastered the art of global computing. No one would be surprised if this now becomes its biggest business.”