Microsoft Azure Force Chokes Amazon AWS To Win Pentagon JEDI Cloud Contract
JEDI will provide enterprise-level commercial Infrastructure as a Service, and Platform as a Service to support the Department of Defense business and mission operations. The contract states that work performance will take place at the Awardee's place of performance. Presumably, that means that the actual storage and processing takes place at the Microsoft data center.
The contract also stipulated a $1 million fiscal 2020 operation and maintenance funds award to cover the minimum guarantee for the contract. Microsoft beat out Amazon and its AWS offering to win the contract, but they weren't the only two companies trying to land the lucrative deal.
IBM and Oracle were both in the running and were eliminated before the last round of bidding. Oracle lost a legal challenge regarding the contract when it claimed there were conflicts of interest. It remains to be seen if Microsoft workers protest the win. Many workers at Microsoft protested the software giant and its HoloLens contract with the U.S. military.
Google had the same issue of employee protests and wasn't in the running for the military contract. Google had workers resign over Project Maven for the military, and ultimately it decided not to renew that contract. Project Maven used Google's AI capability to analyze footage retrieved from drones to identify buildings, vehicles, and other structures. Reports indicate that Google was trying to enhance Project Maven with Google Earth-like surveillance capability.
