Remember JEDI? That was the ten billion dollar contract the Pentagon awarded to Microsoft. Amazon challenged and was canceled. The DoD then launched The Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability as a replacement contract.
And the winner has been announced. Drum roll, please.
It’s all four. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Oracle. The DoD is electing to split the work, awarding up to $9 billion across the contracts.
“No funds will be obligated at the time of award; funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued,” the department said in a statement.
Nobody wins!
Is it an improvement to award work as individual orders are needed? Maybe. It certainly seems like a positive development. There’s undoubtedly logic here to say “right tool for the right job” and order what you need.