New York (AP) — Amazon on Wednesday reported a strong increase in profits and net sales during its fiscal first quarter, helped by surging growth in its prominent cloud computing unit.

The e-commerce and technology company said that sales in its cloud computing unit were up by 28%, the fastest increase in 15 quarters.

The number surpassed Amazon Web Services' 24% growth in the fourth quarter, which followed 20% growth in the third quarter.

Amazon reported earnings of $30.3 billion, or $2.78 per share, for the three-month period ended March 31. That compared with $17.1 billion, or $1.59 per share, in the year-ago period.

Net sales rose 17% to $181.5 billion in the quarter, compared with $155.7 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Analysts were expecting $1.63 per share on sales of $177.28 billion, according to analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Revenue from Amazon Web Services reached $37.58 billion. Analysts were expecting $36.6 billion, according to FactSet.

The company offered a bullish outlook for sales for the current quarter. It said it expected net sales will be in the range of $194 billion to $199 billion.

That would mean an increase of between 16% to 19% from the year-ago quarter. Analysts were expecting $188.96 billion in the current period, according to FactSet.