It appears maybe the principles of equity your dad and mom taught you as kids additionally apply to giant multi-billion greenback protection contracts. This week the DoD introduced that it was awarding 4 huge tech corporations – Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Oracle – an equal alternative to share in a $9 billion contract to carry the division to the cloud.
The brand new program, which is dubbed the Joint Warfighting Cloud Functionality (JWCC), has a 5 and a half 12 months window by way of 2028 with the 4 corporations having an equal alternative to entry the $9 billion in funds, however with none being truly allotted as of but to any of them.
“No funds shall be obligated on the time of award; funds shall be obligated on particular person orders as they’re issued,” the division stated in an announcement.
“The aim of this contract is to supply the Division of Protection with enterprise-wide globally accessible cloud providers throughout all safety domains and classification ranges, from the strategic stage to the tactical edge.”
Whether or not this new contract solves the problems that arose across the authentic ill-fated DoD cloud procurement deal stays unclear. For these of you unfamiliar with the saga, the DoD cloud journey has been a protracted and twisted one.
It started in 2018 when the division introduced the Joint Enterprise Protection Infrastructure orJEDI for brief. The cutesie Star Wars reference apart, the deal got here beneath intense scrutiny due to its winner-take-all element, which instantly had corporations complaining and jockeying for place for what was a $10 billion deal.
Oracle, which you’ll be aware has equal entry on this deal, was notably vocal, complaining that Amazon had an unfair benefit for quite a lot of causes. Ultimately, it wasn’t Amazon that received the deal although, it was Microsoft. However that wasn’t the top of the story as Amazon challenged the end result in court docket, claiming the earlier president had a bias in opposition to former Amazon board chair (and former CEO) Jeff Bezos, who additionally owns the Washington Publish newspaper.
After a variety of further drama, the division lastly pulled the plug on the entire thing in July 2021 and went again to sq. one.
And this week’s announcement is the fruits of that call. The truth that it left all the factor open-ended this time begs the query how this may all lastly get resolved, however we have now one other 5 years to determine it out and see if the DoD can lastly enter the cloud age with out making the 4 main gamers (actually, three and Oracle) sad once more with who will get what.
Perhaps mother actually was proper, and life isn’t reduce up into equal items of pie.
