Amazon poised to escalate Pentagon 'war cloud' fight

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/467827-amazon-poised-to-escalate-pentagon-war-cloud-fight

Amazon poised to escalate Pentagon 'war cloud' fight

By Emily Birnbaum - 10/29/19 06:00 AM EDT

The fight over the Pentagon’s $10 billion “war cloud” contract is entering a new phase after the Department of Defense (DOD) awarded the lucrative contract to Microsoft over rival Amazon in a shocking move.

All eyes are now on Amazon, which is seen as likely to take the fight over the Pentagon’s decision to court or before the government’s top auditing office.

Democrats and industry watchers are raising the possibility that the process was swayed by President Trump, who publicly called on the DOD to investigate the contract over the summer. Trump questioned if the process unfairly favored Amazon, long seen as the front-runner.

A challenge from Amazon’s cloud-computing arm, Amazon Web Services (AWS), involving allegations that the president improperly intervened in the contract process would be unprecedented. Some of the top federal contracting experts in the country told The Hill they can’t think of any similar case in recent history.
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For months, market analysts and tech experts predicted that Amazon would receive the highly sought-after contract, called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), noting Amazon is the No. 1 player in the cloud-computing space with an approximately 48 percent market share. The military has given AWS, which provides cloud-computing for the CIA, its highest data management certification.

Microsoft, which has a slightly lower data certification, is a close second in the cloud computing wars and has been stepping up its outreach to government agencies.

Kelman called Microsoft a “plausible” contender. But Friday’s news of the decision came as a shock to everyone watching the JEDI saga unfold. It appeared to also catch Microsoft by surprise. The company did not offer a statement until the next day.
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