The parent company of discount supermarket Lidl is taking on Amazon by launching its own cloud computing service for third party retailers.

Schwarz Group, which owns Lidl, is launching a rival to Amazon Web Services (AWS), following the recent acquisition of software specialist Camao IDC, as reported by Charged Retail.

The acquisition brings 70 cloud specialists together into a wider group representing key "resources in an important area of digitalisation". It is understood the cloud service was accelerated in response to the coronavirus crisis.

Schwarz IT intends to use Europe's enhanced data protection laws as a selling point to help it go up against the might of Amazon's dominant service, but it's thought AWS cash reserves and low prices could make it hard for Schwarz to get a hold in the market.

Earlier this year, it was reported that Lidl could launch an UK online delivery service by the middle of the year. With consumers crying out for online supermarket deliveries during lockdown, there could be no better time than the present to launch it.