Amid all the controversies over the USD 10 billion JEDI cloud computing contract, the Pentagon is mulling to ‘pull the plug.’ According to reports, the officials are wary of recent complaints and legal cases from other companies. This is also being considered as some lawmakers too suggested that the Pentagon should stop the project. They even asked officials to spread the multi-billion project to different vendors. The project has faced several roadblocks ever since the contract was won by Microsoft. The project is all about migrating the computing infrastructure and data of the Pentagon to the cloud. The contract was given to Microsoft in the year 2019. Amazon, which was one of the frontrunners for the project, has mounted a legal battle since then.
The e-commerce giant has accused former US President Donald Trump of improperly influencing the contract process. Amazon has made several other acquisitions related to the project. The Department of Defence (DOD) sent a memo on January 28 in this regard. The memo, sent to Congress, suggested that the lengthy deposition would make the cloud computing project untenable. Also, a federal judge has refused to dismiss allegations that the former US president interfered with the contract. The judge allowed the e-commerce giant to pursue the case in court.
It must be noted that the US Defense Department initiated a comprehensive re-evaluation after the allegations were raised. However, after evaluating its contract proposal the Department of Defense determined that the proposal given by Microsoft was still of the best value for the government. Commenting on the project, Microsoft said that it is fully prepared and ready to work on the JEDI project but is being pulled back because of the litigation battle. “We totally agree with what the US Defense Department said. This legal battle is harmful and is delaying the process of giving the technology to our military which needs it.” For the uninitiated, Microsoft has been working closely with the US Army for around the past two years.
