President Donald Trump speaks with Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, and Jeff Bezos, Chief Executive Officer of Amazon. At the American Technology Council Roundtable on June 19, 2017 in the State Dining Room at the White House, Washington.
Jabin Botsford | Washington Post | Getty Images
The Pentagon has said it will cooperate with Microsoft on a major cloud deal that has been in dispute in court for months.
JDI or Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure has become one of the most competitive contracts with the Department of Defense. The deal is intended to upgrade the Pentagon’s massive IT infrastructure and could cost up to $ 10 billion for more than 10 years of service.
“The department has completed a comprehensive review of the JDI cloud proposals and has decided that Microsoft’s proposal will continue to represent the best value to the government,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “The JDI Cloud Cloud Agreement is a fixed-price, indefinite-delivery / indefinite-quantity contract that will provide Dodod with a full range of cloud computing services. Contract performance will not begin immediately until February 13, 2020, according to the Court of Federal Claims.” We are starting to reach out to our men and women in uniform. “
Shares of Microsoft soared in Friday’s trading session following the announcement.
This result represents the loss of Amazon, which is challenging the contract award after the Pentagon It was given to Microsoft In October. Representatives from Amazon and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In November, Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s cloud computing unit A case was filed U.S. Court of Federal Claims Protesting Against JDI Decision. The company argued that The bias of President Donald Trump The Pentagon has been pushing for a deal with Amazon and its CEO, Jeff Bezos. During the legal battle, the Pentagon invited Amazon and Microsoft to revise and resubmit proposals for the deal. A Justice Department spokesman was not immediately available for comment following the Pentagon’s statement.
Today’s decision may lead to more legal disputes.
The lucrative deal that Trump intended to award in September 2018 has been scrutinized since Trump said he was last year. The JDI is seriously considering reviewing the agreement.
In July 2019, Trump told reporters at the White House that “some of the best companies in the world are complaining about this,” naming IBM, Microsoft and Oracle. The White House declined to comment.
The potential impact of Trump on this deal Noticed When the term of the then Secretary of Defense of the Pentagon, James Mattis, was mentioned in a book chart, President Mattis was told to exclude Amazon from the deal.
The billionaire executive of the Washington Post is constantly frustrating executive Trump. The President regularly criticizes the administration of the publication. Trump has also repeatedly followed Amazon, as he claims, The U.S. Post Office is not robbed without paying a fair share of the tax.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon’s Inspector General released a report White House does not seem to be affected.
However, the Inspector General’s 313-page report noted that there had been limited cooperation from White House officials throughout the review and that it was unable to complete an assessment of allegations of moral abuse as a result.
Lt. Col. Robert Carver, a spokesman for the Department of Defense, told CNBC that the Inspector General’s report confirmed that the Pentagon’s JDI cloud storage process was “fair and lawful.”
An AWS spokesman at the time suggested that the report did not reveal much.
“It is clear that this report cannot assess political interference, as the White House has instructed several DOD witnesses not to answer IG’s questions about communication between White House and DOD officials,” the spokesman wrote in an email to CNBC. “The White House’s refusal to cooperate with the IG investigation is another naked attempt to avoid meaningful and transparent review of the Jedi contract award,” the person added.
In December, Andy Jassie, Amazon’s AWS chief, told CNBC that cloud cloud contracting was not a fair decision.
“You know, there was a lot of political interference here,” Jassi explained of the Jedi award.
“If you have a sitting president who is willing to make a lot of noise that he does not like a company and the CEO of that company, it is difficult for government agencies, including the DOD, to make objective decisions without fear of retaliation. I think it is dangerous for our country,” he told CNBC’s John Fortina.
This story is evolving. Check back for updates.
Prone to fits of apathy. Unable to type with boxing gloves on. Internet advocate. Avid travel enthusiast. Entrepreneur. Music expert.
