JEDI (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure) is a Department of Defense initiative for moving the Pentagon's digital infrastructure to the cloud. It is a $10 billion contract, which is one of the most lucrative out there, given the profit margin of Internet businesses.
Of all the bidders, Amazon and its Amazon Web Service has been the leader in cloud computing since the beginning. Microsoft has been playing catch-up for the last few years, now #2. Google, IBM, and Oracle are far behind.
There's a lot of drama happening with this bid: conflict of interest, backdoor connection, unfair competition, personnel changes (Mattis to Esper to ...), etc. As a long time government contractor and Trump's close ally, Oracle has put up a tough fight too...
Lobbying plays a big role in this: former Amazon consultant Sally Donnelly served as former Secretary of Defense Mattis's senior advisor (who allegedly handled all political matters for General Mattis).
In January 2017, Donnelly rejoined the department after successfully shepherding Mattis through the Senate confirmation process. Her title, senior adviser, understated her influence. She emerged as one of the most powerful people in the leadership of the Pentagon, according to numerous DOD staffers. She guided Mattis on politics (which was relatively new terrain for him), relations with the White House and dealing with the press. (ProPublica)
Current Secretary Mike Esper was VP at Raytheon prior to his confirmation. Talk about the deep waters here...
Esper was executive vice president at the Aerospace Industries Association in 2006 and 2007. From September 2007 to February 2008, Esper served as national policy director to Senator Fred Thompson in his 2008 presidential campaign. From 2008 to 2010, Esper served as executive vice president of the Global Intellectual Property Center and vice president for Europe and Eurasia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He was hired as vice president of government relations at defense contractor Raytheon in July 2010.[16] Esper was recognized as a top corporate lobbyist by The Hill in 2015 and 2016.[17][18] Esper's departure from Raytheon included a deferred compensation package after 2022, based partly on Raytheon's stock price.
Whether Trump was the key decider or not, the contract went to Microsoft. After a year in court, Microsoft still gets the contract.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/4/21423312/pentagon-microsoft-jedi-amazon-trump-defense-contract-cloud-bezos
ProPublica has done a great job with the general narrative, from Silicon Valley first probing into DoD affairs (with Google ex-CEO Eric Schmidt) to the nasty contest between Amazon & Microsoft & Oracle.
https://www.propublica.org/article/how-amazon-and-silicon-valley-seduced-the-pentagon
NextGov has compiled a pretty thorough timeline for the JEDI bidding process, from start to finish.
https://www.nextgov.com/feature/jedi-contract/
Amazon has put forth some defense as well.
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/publicsector/jedi-why-we-will-continue-protest-politically-corrupted-contract-award/
Interesting fact: for the recent TikTok debacle, Microsoft (the most likely contender) left with nothing, with the deal going to Oracle. Probably not a great deal, but definitely highlights Oracle & Larry Ellison (founder)'s tie to the Trump Administration.
More to come...
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