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[CyberPanda]

What you need to know

• Microsoft and Amazon are competing for a contract to build the U.S. military a war cloud.
• The contract is valued at $10 billion.
• Legal challenges have surrounded the selection process.

Microsoft and Amazon are competing to win the opportunity to create a "war cloud" computing system for the U.S. military. The opportunity is valued at $10 billion and would last a decade (via AP).

The project used to be called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure plan (JEDI). The project would store and process classified data and allow the Pentagon to use AI to improve war planning. The amount of data required for a project is massive, so the U.S. military is doing its due diligence. The competition has already seen major players eliminated from the running. Both Oracle and IBM were eliminated earlier during the competition.

Legal issues surround the competition as Oracle has raised concerns regarding if the Pentagon unfairly favors Amazon. Oracle and IBM lodged formal protests last year as reported by the Associated Press. Following the protests being dismissed, Oracle took the case to the Court of Federal Claims citing what it believes to be conflicts of interest between Amazon and the U.S. government. The legal issues are ongoing, with oral arguments scheduled for Wednesday, July 10, 2019. The central piece of Oracle's argument regards a Defense Department official who went to work for Amazon. Amazon states that Oracle has "exaggerated that employee's role in the procurement."

With legal issues ongoing, the project winner might not be announced for some time. The Wall Street Journal reports that the project is "under fire." When the issues are resolved, the winning company will have a decade long contract to create a unique "war cloud."

Microsoft and Amazon vying for a $10 billion 'War Cloud' contract

Microsoft and Amazon are the frontrunners to build a "war cloud" for the U.S. military.

www.windowscentral.com

 

[Bullet Club]

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

JEDI? Is this real? Did the U.S. Military really reference a Sci-Fi franchise?

 

[DKehoe]

Remember when amazon was a book store?

 

[nikolino840]

Microsoft employees are not Happy about this

 

[Cato]

More important than this is that Google did not even try to bid.
10b contract, government contract, and they did not even try to bid.

I guess they are just so successful they don't have time to waste on 10b government programs.

 

[Cato]

Microsoft employees are not Happy about this

They can be as unhappy as they want. There is 10b+ on the table and that money can easily replace a handful of activist employees that try to disrupt the company's sales and marketing.

EDIT: Lest next shareholder conference Nadella wants to explain why the shareholders are held hostages to a handful of activist employees? Wall street really really want to hear the answer to that question as well.

 

[slugbahr]

Remember when amazon was a book store?

What's a book store?

 

[Mihos]

More important than this is that Google did not even try to bid.
10b contract, government contract, and they did not even try to bid.

I guess they are just so successful they don't have time to waste on 10b government programs.

They are too busy walking out on their six figure jobs because math doesn't work the way they want it to.

 

[mckmas8808]

More important than this is that Google did not even try to bid.
10b contract, government contract, and they did not even try to bid.

I guess they are just so successful they don't have time to waste on 10b government programs.

It means Google is smart. There's literally NO WAY, a private company is going to build a "War Cloud" for the US Federal government and their executives NOT be stuck in political hearings every 2 years trying to explain what a breach to security means to Congress men and women.