Pentagon cancels $10 billion JEDI cloud contract after long feud between Amazon and Microsoft
The Pentagon said today it will nix the $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract, a massive project to migrate the Pentagon’s computing infrastructure and data to the cloud, following a prolonged legal battle between tech rivals Amazon and Microsoft.
The decision marks an end to a long bidding process and courtroom saga that lasted several years over one of the largest IT procurements in U.S. history that was originally awarded to Microsoft.
In a statement, the Department of Defense said “due to evolving requirements, increased cloud conversancy, and industry advances, the JEDI Cloud contract no longer meets its needs.” It will pursue a new contract called Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC) expected to go to both Microsoft and Amazon, and potentially others.
Amazon was seen as a frontrunner for JEDI, but Microsoft won the contract in October 2019, beating out other competitors including IBM and Oracle which both complained about the bidding format.
