After dropping several hints that it might drop the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract with Microsoft the Pentagon finally severed their ties. According to the DOD, JEDI is no longer relevant what with all the “evolving requirements, increased cloud conversancy, and industry advances.”
The contract was given to Microsoft in 2019 after a brutal battle between the two business giants. Everyone thought Amazon had the $10 billion contract in the bag, so when they were passed over they turned around and filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon.
But none of that matters now because the Pentagon dropped Microsoft to explore and reconsider its options.
The JEDI contract, which aimed to give the military better access to data from remote locations using cloud technology, was initially expected to go to Amazon before the Defense Department decided to give the award to Microsoft in October of 2019, prompting a lawsuit from Amazon.
“JEDI was developed at a time when the Department’s needs were different and both the [cloud service provider] technology and our cloud conversancy was less mature,” acting DOD Chief Information Officer John Sherman said in a Tuesday statement.
He added that with the Pentagon’s newer initiatives including the Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) and the Artificial Intelligence and Data Acceleration (ADA) initiative, “the evolution of the cloud ecosystem within DOD, and changes in user requirements to leverage multiple cloud environments to execute mission,” the department’s “landscape has advanced and a new way-ahead is warranted to achieve dominance in both traditional and non-traditional war-fighting domains.”
“We understand the DoD’s rationale, and we support them and every military member who needs the mission-critical 21st century technology JEDI would have provided,” Microsoft President of U.S. Regulated Industries Toni Townes-Whitley said in a Tuesday blog post responding to the news. “The DoD faced a difficult choice: Continue with what could be a years-long litigation battle or find another path forward.”
Townes-Whitley then aimed criticism at Amazon, saying that “when one company can delay, for years, critical technology upgrades for those who defend our nation, the protest process needs reform.
Amazon Web Services took the Pentagon to court accusing their processes of being flawed and unfair and even tried to blame former President Donald Trump’s hatred toward the company for losing the contract.
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