Microsoft Wins $10 Billion Pentagon Cloud Contract, Beating Amazon

Microsoft Corp. has won the sought-after JEDI cloud computing contract with the Pentagon valued at as much as $10 billion over a decade, dealing a blow to the market leader, Amazon.com Inc., which had been the front-runner. The decision, which was announced by the Defense Department late Friday, may be challenged by Amazon, according to a person familiar with the matter, because President Donald Trump weighed in on the bidding process. The terms of the competition were also hotly contested by another rival, Oracle Corp. The Pentagon has said the cloud project, known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, is intended to help bring American military technology into the modern era.

Link to article on Bloomberg

I am surprised at this news. I didn't think they would beat Amazon.

a reply to: machineintelligence

I wonder if that Capital One security breach of Amazon's cloud service played a part in Amazon losing out to Microsoft. Several congressmen/women have raised some questions about the vulnerability of government and corporate entities that use Amazon's cloud computing products.

a reply to: queenofswords

I had not thought of that but it makes sense. That has to be some concern as well as the hand and glove relationship they have with China.

Microsoft and Amazon jockey in an out of cloud contract awards. This is for the Pentagon. Amazon for example has massive contracts for Veteran Affairs. Neither one of them is an exclusive government cloud vendor.

The Pentagon could switch to Amazon or even another vendor down the road which is how it should work. Being a senior contract officer, much goes into the weighing of each vendor; Costs, new more efficient processes, feasibility, attention to hiring minorities, Veterans. The whole process is extremely complicated. Oh, and the Government can cut them loose at any given time with no consequences. 10 years could be 2 years. The Government can tear up contracts at will.

They lost trillions and now want to spend billions to set up more spy server farms using taxpayers money?
Isn't Microsuck a spook company anyway?

JfC we need to end income tax, these guys are out of control.

And another thing, there is no fn way our info should be on any fn corporate servers ever.
I mean are they retarded?
I'll answer that...no they are laundering more gd money and are already infested in every windows os.

Fn doctor evil efers ...."10 billion dollars"

The whole thing is bs.

"We can't put some sever racks in our building, we need a cloud service."

originally posted by: Mandroid7
The whole thing is bs.

"We can't put some sever racks in our building, we need a cloud service."

They did that for a while. It's too much data and with all these systems trying to integrate on a national level, the in house option does not work anymore. It's impossible to manage for the government. Gaining access, increasing storage, shutting servers down when they start failing...better to contract it out and let a few cloud providers deal with it exclusively.

a reply to: Mandroid7

The reasons they "lost" trillions(which they didn't really) is because they have 500 accounting systems that don't talk to each other, because everyone has their own server system.

I hope MS employees are not being trusted with secret info. But I imagine MS tells the government that it's OK.

Hmmm ... do you think the obvious distaste that a certain Commander in Chief for Bezos had anything to do with it?

Nah, probably not, he just likes Bill Microsoft better I guess.

And right as that was hitting it was reported that Bezos lost $7-billion in worth and slipped back to 2nd-richest behind Bill Gates. Gates be like "I outlasted Jobs, came back, and bested that punk Bezos!"

Clash of the creepy titans.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Mandroid7

The reasons they "lost" trillions(which they didn't really) is because they have 500 accounting systems that don't talk to each other, because everyone has their own server system.

This is true. Not so much accounting systems but legacy programs that almost nobody understands anymore. We have programs from the late 70's early 80's trying to integrate with new programs lol. Total nightmare. Sad part is the old stuff was bullet proof. The new stuff has more bells and whistles but it constantly breaks and needs patches. It's very expensive trying to consolidate all of it on a national level and IT work is expensive as hell. People like it when it runs smooth but what they don't see is all those little dirty duck feet plowing through the IT water trying to make it glide.

It is being reported the Trump said to screw Amazon. MS, it is your lucky days. MS CEO will get even a bigger raise then the recent 66%.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Mandroid7

The reasons they "lost" trillions(which they didn't really) is because they have 500 accounting systems that don't talk to each other, because everyone has their own server system.

Truth to tell, that's ubiquitous in our government including the State Department. Old technology and rabid territorialism.

originally posted by: roadgravel
It is being reported the Trump said to screw Amazon. MS, it is your lucky days. MS CEO will get even a bigger raise then the recent 66%.

He doesn't have that power. The contract award process involves Congress. He does have a lot of power but there are two other branches that can override him. I support Trump but he says a lot of stupid !@#$ because he is use to being King of his empire. He's not a King anymore. NOBODY has all the power in the Federal Government. Not him, Pelosi, or anyone else. The Federal Government is modular blocks of power. Start trying to change that and the other blocks will form a wedge around you.

Accounting text doesn't take million sqft server farms drawing the electricity usage of a small city.

Failure to maintain a buget like every adult means they should be removed from their positions.
I would hope Microsoft is a sppok company like they appear, otherwise we have to rethink our military strategy.
How is that not a national security threat?

Jesus

a reply to: Mandroid7

They are maintaining a budget, it's just that each program is maintaining their own budget.

True, all programs have a budget mandated by Congress and not all programs are in the cloud. It's mainly for the bigger programs. Getting in the cloud is hella expensive for the Government. Most are not though in the cloud. In house servers. It's not a bad thing though. Companies will improve cloud efficiency and cost and pass that on to the consumer as they normally do.

a reply to: Stupidsecrets

I have no idea whether his input played a role. I imagine he will take credit.

Anyone holding AMD stock is probably going to benefit form this nicely. Might look into it myself.