10 billion contract: who will deal with the cloud for the Pentagon

    We understand the situation and give the community opinions regarding a potential transaction.


    Photos - Clem Onojeghuo - Unsplash

    Background


    In 2018, the Pentagon began work on the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure program (JEDI). It provides for the transfer of all organization data into a single cloud. This even applies to classified information about weapons systems, as well as data on military personnel and combat operations. 10 billion dollars were allocated for this task.

    Cloud Tender has become the corporate battlefield. A minimum of nine companies have joined . Here are just a few: Amazon, Google, Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, SAP, and VMware.

    Over the past year, many of them have been eliminated because they did not satisfyPentagon requirements. Some did not have permission to work with classified information, and some of them focus on highly specialized services. For example, Oracle - for databases, and VMware - for virtualization.

    Google last year on their own refused to participate. Their project could conflict with the company’s policy regarding the use of artificial intelligence systems in the military. However, the corporation plans to continue working with authorities in other areas.

    Only two participants remained in the race - Microsoft and Amazon. The Pentagon must make its choice before the end of summer .

    Debate of the parties


    The ten billionth deal caused a great deal of resonance. The main complaint to the JEDI project is that the data of the central military department of the country will be concentrated in one contractor. A number of members of Congress insist that with such data volumes several companies should serve at once, and this guarantees greater security.

    A similar view is shared by IBM and Oracle. Last October, Sam Gordy, one of the IBM executives, noted that the mono-cloud approach is contrary to the trends of the IT industry, which is moving towards hybrid and multi-cloud.

    But John Gibson, chief executive of the US Department of Defense, noted that such an infrastructure would cost the Pentagon too much. And the JEDI project was just conceived to centralize the data of five hundred cloud projects ( p . 7 ). Now, due to the difference in the quality of storage, the speed of access to data is suffering. A single cloud will mitigate this problem.

    The community has questions for the contract itself. At Oracle, for example, they believe that it was originally written with the aim of winning Amazon. US congressmen share the same point of view. Senator Marco Rubio sent a letter to National Security Advisor John Bolton last week asking him to delay signing the contract. He noted that the procedure for selecting a cloud provider was "dishonest."

    Oracle even filed a complaint with the US Audit Office. But it did not bring results. Later, company representatives went to court, where they said that the decisions taken by the state office were compromised by a conflict of interest. According toOracle representatives, two Pentagon employees, were offered jobs at AWS during the tender. But last week, the judge dismissed the lawsuit .

    Analysts say that the reason for this behavior of Oracle is the potential financial loss. At risk were several company contracts with the US Department of Defense. In any case, representatives of the Pentagon deny violations, and say that there can be no talk of revising the current results of the selection.

    Likely outcome


    Experts note that with a high degree of probability, the cloud provider, which will be selected in the Pentagon, will be Amazon. If only because the company directed as much as $ 13 million to promote its interests in the government sector - and this is only for 2017. This amount is comparable to that which was jointly spent by Microsoft and IBM.


    Photos - Asael Peña - Unsplash

    But there is an opinion that for Microsoft not everything is lost. Last year, the company made a deal to service the cloud structure of the US Intelligence Community. It includes a dozen national agencies, including the CIA and the NSA.

    Also in January this year, the IT corporation signed a new five-year contract.with the US Department of Defense in the amount of 1.76 billion dollars. It is believed that the new agreements can outweigh the balance in favor of Microsoft.



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