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from the do-you-get-to-the-cloud-district-very-often dept.
Pentagon cancels $10 billion JEDI cloud contract that Amazon and Microsoft were fighting over
The Department of Defense announced Tuesday it's calling off the $10 billion cloud contract that was the subject of a legal battle involving Amazon and Microsoft. But it's also announcing a new contract and soliciting proposals from both cloud service providers where both will likely clinch a reward.
The JEDI, or Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, deal has become one of the most tangled contracts for the DOD. In a press release Tuesday, the Pentagon said that "due to evolving requirements, increased cloud conversancy, and industry advances, the JEDI Cloud contract no longer meets its needs."
[...] The agency said it plans to solicit proposals from both Amazon and Microsoft for the contract, adding that they are the only cloud service providers that can meet its needs. But, it added, it will continue to do market research to see if others could also meet its specifications.
Also at c|net, SecurityWeek, Al Jazera, and The Washington Post.
Previously: Amazon, Microsoft Wage War Over the Pentagon's "War Cloud"
Pentagon Beams Down $10bn JEDI Contract to Microsoft: Windows Giant Beats Off Bezos
Pentagon's $10BN Jedi Decision 'Risky for the Country and Democracy,' Says AWS CEO Jassy
Amazon Wins Court Injunction on Controversial JEDI Contract
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday July 06 2021, @09:14PM (4 children)
I remember bits and pieces of contracts written by the Navy back in the day. There were a number of blocks to check off. Of course, any contractor had to be big enough, and experienced enough, that you could expect them to complete the contract. But, going down the checklists, you were required to favor minority owned businesses. Then, small business. Meaning, you had to shop for a minority owned small business that could credibly provide the goods and services. If no minority owned businesses qualified, you had to shop small businesses that weren't minority owned. Only after you had checked all the boxes, could you use a large corporation. Once you made that jump to large corporation territory, you had another checklist to go through - and again, you were supposed to favor the smaller corporations.
Whatever happened to that idea?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 06 2021, @09:25PM (2 children)
It is still there.
But, try to name the "minority owned cloud provider" or the "small business cloud provider".....
That's the problem. There aren't any. So one ends up at the MS's and Amazon's.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 06 2021, @09:36PM (1 child)
So pay reparations to the Afro-Americans, convince them to spend it on servers instead of crack and BLM t-shirts, and then give them contracts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 07 2021, @09:36PM
The only reparations i would support is a cruise ship ticket and some money to get started in whichever African countries want them in exchange for the renouncing of their US citizenship.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 06 2021, @09:38PM
Now, and it was true back then, the intent is that with all else being equal, the scale should tip towards the small/disadvantaged/etc. business. Being able to meet the contract need still wins out over everything, so you are not forced to go with one of them provided you can justify the reason. Here it sounds like they're saying the job is too big for anyone but these two to satisfy (and Google, I'm sure). I think the small business set asides are good ideas so that it keeps one from just going with the same guys kind of mindset (like how my wife just orders everything from Amazon because it is easy), but whenever any new rule is put out, there are people who try to game the system.