The Department of Defense JEDI cloud contract is estimated to be a $10 billion contract. And it appeared headed into the hands of Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Now, however, the Empire is striking back.
In this story, the Empire consists of other cloud providers, members of Congress, and even the President.
The U.S. Department of Defense Inspector General announced that its office is launching an investigation into whether there were unfair criteria used in the contracting process or undue influence by anyone in the DOD.
Bloomberg reports:
The watchdog office's inquiry began before President Donald Trump endorsed criticism by rivals that the pending contract award favors Amazon.com Inc., the leading cloud services provider. New Defense Secretary Mark Esper has initiated his own review of the project.
"A multidisciplinary team" of auditors, investigators and attorneys is investigating JEDI matters "referred to us by members of Congress and through the DoD Hotline," spokeswoman Dwrena Allen said. "In addition, we are investigating whether current or former DoD officials committed misconduct relating to the JEDI acquisition, such as whether any had any conflicts of interest related to their involvement in the acquisition process."
Because of this decision, there might have been a few champagne corks popped over at Oracle (and other cloud providers) since Oracle had filed a formal complaint against the United States government and Amazon.
We wrote extensively about this case: What Is the JEDI Cloud, and Why Did the Government Reject a Multi-Cloud Option?
Part of the reason, the Pentagon said, is that a multi-cloud option is more complex, which can make cybersecurity more challenging.
