Microsoft Acquires $10 Billion DoD JEDI Contract Instead of Amazon

The US Department of Defense has been searching for a company that would be fitting for their $10 billion-large JEDI (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure) contract for quite a while now. In the end, only a few companies ended up being considered in the final round, and the DoD finally made their decision known on late Friday, October 25th. The contract went to Microsoft. As some may know, Amazon was actually Microsoft’s main competitor for the contract. In fact, many believed that Amazon would win it, but the last several rounds of the bidding process turned the tables, and Microsoft won. Another major contender was Google, although the company decided to pull out of the race late in 2018. Other corporations such as IBM and Oracle were also eliminated earlier in 2019, after which Pentagon suddenly announced that the contract would be put on hold. The reason behind this was President Trump’s complaint that there might be conflicts of interest along the way. Another thing to keep in mind is that Trump targeted Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, who was, essentially, named a political thorn due to the fact that he owns The Washington Post. Now, however, the decision was finally brought, and the winning firm ended up being Microsoft. As for the JEDI contract itself, it is expected to bring new upgrades to the legacy systems by implementing new cloud services. It will be enterprise-level, commercial IaaS and Paas (Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service), not only to the DoD but also for any of its business and mission partners. Furthermore, it is expected to reach a value of $10 billion during the next decade. The Department of Defense’s official statement says that the choice of Microsoft will continue the DoD’s strategy of creating a multi-vendor, multi-cloud environment, which is necessary due to the Department’s diverse needs. The contract’s base period will be two years, with a $1 million guarantee. What do you think of the Department of Defense’s choice? Do you believe that Microsoft is the right company for the job? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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