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Pentagon beams down $10bn JEDI contract to Microsoft: Windows giant beats off Bezos
Microsoft has been awarded the $10bn decade-long US Department of Defense JEDI IT supply contract that will see the nation's military switch to the cloud.
The Redmond giant's Azure platform will play host to the US armed forces in an attempt to overhaul and streamline the Pentagon's IT infrastructure under a single umbrella – or single point of failure, to put it another way. Microsoft share price rose on the news in after-hours trading.
"The National Defense Strategy dictates that we must improve the speed and effectiveness with which we develop and deploy modernized technical capabilities to our women and men in uniform," Dept of Defense (DoD) Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy said in announcing the award.
"The DoD Digital Modernization Strategy was created to support this imperative. This award is an important step in execution of the Digital Modernization Strategy."
The decision will no doubt come as a disappointment to Amazon Web Services (AWS), the presumed front-runner for the single-vendor deal since it was first announced.
Due to the massive requirements of the winner-takes-all contract, the security clearances required and the mandate that it go to a single provider, AWS and Microsoft were seen as the only two qualified candidates for the deal.
In awarding the contract to Microsoft, the Pentagon will avoid further allegations that it collaborated with AWS to stack the deck in its favor, a complaint which has dogged the process from its outset.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Saturday October 26 2019, @08:08AM (5 children)
Something as sensitive and critical as military data hosted on a privately-owned cloud... The mind boggles.
On the plus side, I look forward to disgruntled Microsoft employees - or even more amusing, employees of Microsoft subcontractors in India or elsewhere - leaking interesting embarrasing military documents: when that happens, not only will we know what the DoD didn't want us to see, but the cloud as a concept will be exposed spectacularly as the immense security risk it is.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 26 2019, @01:51PM (1 child)
Not just any cloud, Microsoft's cloud. I've worked in network security for well over a decade, and some of the people I've worked with in the past have migrated to various cloud providers. From what I've heard from these people, Microsoft Azure is the worst secured of the bunch. I don't think we'll have to wait for a subcontractor to leak anything, I bet every major state actor, and most minor ones, already have their hooks deep enough into Azure that everything is going to be leaked as soon as it goes up.
I bet a bunch of DoD officials will get Microsoft sinecures after they "retire", though. Probably to manage the JEDI contract.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 26 2019, @04:07PM
That's no Cloud, it's a Smoke Screen.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday October 26 2019, @08:34PM
I'm reading Edward Snowdens book: the mind boggles at what contract positions are allowed access to.
And that aliens haven't contacted Earth...right...how do you explain the Clinton's? AMIRIGHT!?!?!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 26 2019, @09:04PM (1 child)
Microsoft's board is full of spooks. [deepfreeze.it] The Pentagon signed a contract to give away all of its data to foreign powers and pay the spooks for the service.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 27 2019, @06:40PM
yes, this shit is not an accident.