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posted by martyb on Thursday July 11 2019, @03:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the war-cloud-war dept.

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

Amazon, Microsoft wage war over the Pentagon's 'war cloud':

Amazon and Microsoft are battling it out over a $10 billion opportunity to build the U.S. military its first "war cloud" computing system. But Amazon's early hopes of a shock-and-awe victory may be slipping away.

Formally called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure plan, or JEDI, the military's computing project would store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing the Pentagon to use artificial intelligence to speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities. The Defense Department hopes to award the winner-take-all contract as soon as August. Oracle and IBM were eliminated at an earlier round of the contract competition.

But that's only if the project isn't derailed first. It faces a legal challenge by Oracle and growing congressional concerns about alleged Pentagon favoritism toward Amazon. Military officials hope to get started soon on what will be a decade-long business partnership they describe as vital to national security.

"This is not your grandfather's internet," said Daniel Goure, vice president of the Lexington Institute, a defense-oriented think tank. "You're talking about a cloud where you can go from the Pentagon literally to the soldier on the battlefield carrying classified information."

Amazon was considered an early favorite when the Pentagon began detailing its cloud needs in 2017, but its candidacy has been marred by an Oracle allegation that Amazon executives and the Pentagon have been overly cozy. Oracle has a final chance to make its case against Amazon - and the integrity of the government's bidding process - in a court hearing Wednesday.


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  • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday July 11 2019, @03:45AM (3 children)

    by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 11 2019, @03:45AM (#865661) Homepage Journal

    Headline is about Amazon vs Microsoft.
    Summary is about Oracle barging in.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by MostCynical on Thursday July 11 2019, @04:07AM (2 children)

    by MostCynical (2589) on Thursday July 11 2019, @04:07AM (#865667) Journal

    From TFA: " Microsoft has largely stayed quiet during the dispute. In a statement, it focused on highlighting its 40-year partnership supplying the military with services such as email."

    Apparenltly, Oracle's complaints and court case could help Microsoft.

    Anyone sane trust any of them with anything secret, let alone national secrets?

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday July 11 2019, @05:04AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 11 2019, @05:04AM (#865687) Journal

      Anyone sane trust any of them with anything secret, let alone national secrets?

      We aren't in the "sanity" teritory here, we are in the Pentagon's one.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by arslan on Thursday July 11 2019, @06:07AM

      by arslan (3462) on Thursday July 11 2019, @06:07AM (#865700)

      How is that any different with other contractors and their sub-contracts?

      Surely we're aren't talking about the mil. putting their stuff on the "public" cloud of those vendors, but getting them to help build & manage a private cloud right?

      If anything I'd think it'll be better, if anything at least for Amazon, they don't have a rabbit hole of sub-contracting culture - at least not that I've dealt with in the corporate sector. Not sure about MS or Oracle.