{"id":81215,"date":"2022-12-16T16:16:36","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T16:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techrepublic.com\/?p=4012623"},"modified":"2022-12-16T16:16:36","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T16:16:36","slug":"pentagon-splits-9b-cloud-deal-between-amazon-google-microsoft-and-oracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloudnewshub.com\/?p=81215","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon splits $9B cloud deal between Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle"},"content":{"rendered":"
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No Jedi mind tricks involved: The five-sided government entity chose four cloud providers as it ended its single-company JEDI contract with Microsoft. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Image: icholakov\/Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The U.S. Department of Defense is not slowing down in committing substantial financial investment to revamp its cloud services across security domains at all levels.<\/p>\n

There has been some debate over which cloud provider would best handle the financial investments in cloud services for the Pentagon. This has generated a tussle among giant cloud providers like Amazon<\/a>, Microsoft<\/a>, Google<\/a> and Oracle<\/a>. In recent years, these hyper-scale cloud providers have all been caught up in trying to outwrestle each other in a bid to strike a cloud deal with the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

In what could come as a surprise to many tech observers, the Pentagon has announced that it has reached a $9 billion cloud computing deal with Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle. The Pentagon says the deal provides it with \u201centerprise-wide globally available cloud services across all security domains and classification levels, from the strategic level to the tactical edge.\u201d<\/p>\n

SEE: Hiring Kit: Cloud Engineer<\/a> (TechRepublic Premium)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The announcement is the outcome of the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability effort with the  Defense Department to rely on multi-cloud<\/a> provisions. The move is a total departure from the single-company partnership witnessed under Trump\u2019s administration, which saw the Pentagon working solely with Microsoft.<\/p>\n

Before this announcement, in 2019, the Pentagon had awarded the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure to Microsoft. The deal came in the face of competition from AWS and Oracle, raising many eyebrows, and it was greeted with a lawsuit from Amazon and Oracle. Following continuous litigation over the JEDI contract, the Pentagon decided to terminate the exclusive contract with Microsoft in 2021 and look for other ways to procure cloud services.<\/p>\n

Why did the government terminate its JEDI contract?<\/h2>\n

In 2021, the Pentagon announced the creation of the JWCC contract to replace the JEDI contract. The JWCC was intended to be a multi-vendor acquisition model designed to make cloud services and capabilities available at all classi\ufb01cation levels and across all security domains, from the enterprise to the tactical edge.<\/p>\n