What you need to know
- There was fierce competition from companies like Amazon and Microsoft to win a $10 billion Pentagon contract.
- Today, the United States Department of Defense stated that Microsoft was awarded the contract.
- The 'JEDI' Cloud contract will enable Microsoft to provide cloud services, artificial intelligence, and more for defense purposes.
- The contract has been embroiled in a lot of controversy and legal challenges since it was revealed.
Updated January 14, 2020: Amazon is suing the American government because it feels that President Donald Trump pressured the Department of Defense from awarding the contract to Amazon.
If you've been paying attention to technology news recently, you've probably heard of the battle between Amazon and Microsoft when it came to The Pentagon's lucrative $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract. Many industry analysts predicted that Amazon had this one in the bag, but that isn't the case at all. Just now, The Pentagon announced a number of new contracts awarded to various companies, and confirmed that Microsoft won the $10 billion contract.
The statement issued by the United States Department of Defense stated that the JEDI contract was for "enterprise level, commercial Infrastructure as a Service... and Platform as a Service... to support Department of Defense business and mission operations." You can read the statement below.
Microsoft... has been awarded a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery... contract with a ceiling value of $10,000,000,000 over a period of 10 years, if all options are exercised. The JEDI Cloud contract will provide enterprise level, commercial Infrastructure as a Service... and Platform as a Service... to support Department of Defense business and mission operations. Work performance will take place at the awardee's place of performance. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $1,000,000 are being obligated on a task order against this award to cover the minimum guarantee. The expected completion date is Oct. 24, 2029, if all options are exercised.
According to a report by The Verge, the contract will provide The Pentagon with "cloud services for basic storage and power all the way up to artificial intelligence processing, machine learning, and the ability to process mission-critical workloads." Microsoft is probably thrilled that it landed this one.
As is the case for such large-scale contracts, there was a lot of controversy in the months leading up to the decision. We heard of countless legal battles and complaints from competitors. It'll be interesting to see what the future holds for the JEDI contract, but right now, it seems like Microsoft is all set.
