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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.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday July 11 2019, @04:55AM (1 child)
Firstly, haven't they learned a thing or two about cloud providers? Data losses, leaks, data offshoring, out-of-control subcontractors, and just plain loss of control over the data. Not to mention tbe ever-present threat of losing access to the data when the internet goes down, which should be a concern to any normal business, but especially one to the military.
Secondly, if I was an enemy of the US, I'd start mapping out all the datacenters run by cloud providers and developing EMP weapons. Are Google, Microsoft or Oracle ready and equipped to deal with hostile actions against their assets by foreign actors? I very much doubt it. The Pentagon is totally reckless to outsource their data to them...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday July 11 2019, @05:12AM
Something's telling me that "This is not your grandfather's internet". I don't expect the cloud to be hosted/supported by the same infrastructure as the "civilian" one - more likely it will be a "private cloud + services".
A speed reading across TFA reveals this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0