Cloud News
AWS Vs. Microsoft: 7 Things To Watch As The JEDI Cloud Saga Unfolds
Joseph Tsidulko
A federal judge granted Amazon Web Services’ request for a temporary restraining order that will prevent Microsoft from moving forward with implementation work on the JEDI cloud initiative.
JEDI: The Next Episode
The JEDI cloud saga for all intents and purposes got started at the Sheraton Pentagon City hotel, just over the hill from Arlington National Cemetery, in March of 2018.
At that Industry Day for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure initiative, dozens of tech companies came eager to learn more of the military’s plans to procure comprehensive Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service capabilities from a commercial cloud provider.
But the cloud strategy revealed that day, and elaborated on later in two draft RFPs, surprised many by taking what was viewed as a distinctly non-multi-cloud approach. The military’s decision for a single cloud provider to win the bulk of the JEDI contract became the spark that set off high-pitched skirmishes across the tech world that ultimately redounded back to the halls of power in Washington D.C.
Now, as Microsoft prepares to begin implementing a multi-billion-dollar cloud transformation for the U.S. military, AWS is pulling out all the stops to hit the brakes and force a new process to re-evaluate submissions.
In a last-ditch lawsuit challenging the final selection of Microsoft as a decision corrupted by bias and pressure directly from the president of the United States, AWS seeks to depose President Donald Trump as well as the former and current Secretaries of Defense.
Amazon’s legal team won some breathing room Thursday when the judge granted its motion filed last month seeking a temporary restraining order to stop JEDI work that was set to begin this week.
All the briefs have been filed, and now those anticipated rulings loom large over the military, the tech industry and even the White House.
