The Department of Defense (DoD) of the USA signed a contract with Microsoft in October 2019 for the implementation of a new enterprise cloud, the so-called Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (“JEDI”), but still canceled and is now looking for an alternative cloud solution.
As the United States Department of Defense in the Pentagon explains in a press release, the agency will not cancel it until October 2019 Microsoft placed an order for the prestige project “JEDI” and has also successfully initiated the procedure to terminate the contract.
According to the US Department of Defense, the current offer “no longer meets the current requirements” that the Federal Ministry now has for a corresponding cloud. As an alternative, offers from Amazon (AWS) should also be obtained again from Microsoft.
John Sherman, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the U.S. Departments of Defense, justified the current end of the “JEDI” project in the official statement of the Ministry of Defense as follows:
JEDI was developed at a time when the Department's needs were different and both the CSPs technology and our cloud conversancy was less mature.
John Sherman, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Department of Defense (DoD)
With Joint All Domain Command and Control (PDF) and AI and Data Acceleration (ADA), the IT landscape of the ministry and its armed forces have also changed, as Sherman continues.
In light of new initiatives like JADC2 and AI and Data Acceleration (ADA), the evolution of the cloud ecosystem within DoD, and changes in user requirements to leverage multiple cloud environments to execute mission, our landscape has advanced and a new way-ahead is warranted to achieve dominance in both traditional and non-traditional warfighting domains.
John Sherman, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Department of Defense (DoD)
Der The previously concluded contract for the extremely prestigious cloud project was endowed with a total of 10 billion US dollars and is to be reversed after the termination of the contract with Microsoft.
Amazon and Donald Trump also mix with
Immediately after the project was awarded by the Pentagon to Microsoft in October 2019, Amazon, which also had the prospect of being awarded, stopped the progress of “JEDI” with a lawsuit. According to the complaint, Amazon assumed that the disagreements between then President Donald Trump and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos were a key factor in awarding the contract to Microsoft.
Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (“JEDI”) was designed to upgrade or replace outdated systems in the Department of Defense with newer cloud services. When the tender for the contract began, DoD said that the JEDI cloud “provides commercial infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) at the enterprise level for the ministry and all mission partners, business and mission operations of the ministry would. “
It was widely believed throughout the bid process that Amazon would win the bid with AWS. Ultimately, Amazon and Microsoft emerged as the last two bidders from the “winner-take-all” deal. Google pulled out of the JEDI bidding process in late 2019, while Oracle and IBM dropped out in early 2020, with Oracle failing in court to challenge the company's exclusion from the bidding process.
After Microsoft was finally awarded the contract and thus preferred to AWS, Amazon AWS described the decision of the Department of Defense as “politically corrupted” by US President Donald Trump.
Stop court hearings” JEDI “
From the point of view of the Ministry of Defense, the termination of the JEDI contract was also due to “evolving requirements, increasing cloud conversation and advances in industry”. The draft became increasingly out of date while the project was at a standstill in court.
Microsoft reacts with understanding and criticism
< p class = "p text-width">Microsoft has already commented on the termination of the contract on its official blog and on the one hand showed understanding for the decision of the ministry, which had to make a “difficult decision”, according to the company.
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. The DoD faced a difficult choice: Continue with what could be a years-long litigation battle or find another path forward.
Microsoft
On the other hand, Microsoft criticized but the circumstances that led to the project's stop and pointed out once again that there had never been any indications of interference in the first award process.
The security of the United States is more important than any single contract, and we know that Microsoft will do well when the nation does well. Because the security of the United States through the provision of critical technology upgrades is more important that any single contract, we respect and accept DoD's decision to move forward on a different path to secure mission-critical technology.
Microsoft
Amazon and Microsoft in a duel again
In another bidder duel, Amazon and Microsoft will already be See you again soon, because the DoD intends to obtain offers from these two companies again, as all available market research has shown “that these two providers are the only cloud service providers (CSPs) that can meet the requirements of the ministry.” Should market research further CSPs If they are able to do so, the ministry will solicit offers from these companies as well.