2019-01-08 Wednesday - DoD JEDI Contract Research

2019-04-11 Update:

• Pentagon names Microsoft and Amazon as $10B JEDI cloud contract finalists

2019-10-25 Update:

• https://www.marketwatch.com/story/microsoft-wins-pentagons-10-billion-jedi-cloud-contract-beating-amazon-2019-10-25?mod=home-page

DOD’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) project.

[I believe the eventual award decision on this contract has the potential to significantly shift the balance of power in the Cloud vendor space - and to drive new innovation opportunities, for whichever vendor is selected]

Contract Information

• DRAFT DOD JEDI Cloud RFP

Selected News Items

• https://beth.technology/microsoft-amazon-pentagon-contract/
• "Many prognosticators and reporters unanimously believe the contract will go to Amazon Web Services. This belief is so strong that vendors, such as Oracle and IBM, made a rebuttal to Congress, believing the terms of the proposal favored Amazon. However, the majority of these forecasts overlook Microsoft’s strength in security and IT, and the alliances Microsoft has been forming with the DoD since Satya Nadella became CEO in 2014. "
• "The Pentagon contract will move 3.4 million users and 4 million devices off private servers and into the cloud."
• "One point of contention during the request for proposals, released on July 26^th, was the stipulation that the contract be awarded to a single cloud provider. This provision caused a rebuttal to be sent to Congress as it narrows down who can compete on these terms. There are nine tech companies who have voiced opposition to the government awarding the JEDI contract to a single provider, including Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Red Hat, and VM Ware." 
• https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/12/16/oracle-amazon-spar-over-pentagon-cloud-computing-contract/
• "In a bid protest filed recently in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Oracle argued the Defense Department’s $10 billion cloud-computing contract, known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or “JEDI” for short, has improperly favored Amazon Web Services, the cloud-computing unit of Amazon.com."
• https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/15/business/amazon-government/index.html
• "The shift began in 2010, when the incoming Obama administration began pushing federal agencies to put their data into the cloud in an effort to reduce the $19 billion they spent on traditional data centers each year."
• "n 2010, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board — an agency created by the Obama administration to oversee the use of billions of dollars in stimulus spending following the recession — moved Recovery.gov to AWS' cloud. According to Amazon, that decision saved the government $750,000 in one year. " 
• https://about.bgov.com/blog/five-takeaways-jedi-decision-oracle/
• "The GAO on Nov. 19 published a 19-page decision ruling against Oracle Corp.’s JEDI bid protest, five days after issuing a news release explaining its decision."
• "The Pentagon’s goal “is for the JEDI Cloud to host 80 percent of current DoD applications,” according to a Sept. 24 memorandum"
• "The Chief of Staff had been previously employed by Washington consulting firm SBD Advisors, which counted AWS among its top clients. Several reports suggested that former SBD employees, including the Chief of Staff, may have influenced the acquisition in AWS’s favor."
• "he Digital Service Expert had been employed by AWS prior to his role with DDS, where he performed market research on potential JEDI competitors. He recused himself from JEDI activities in October 2017 and was subsequently rehired by AWS. " 
• https://www.businessinsider.com/google-drops-out-of-10-billion-jedi-contract-bid-2018-10
• "Google has dropped out of a bidding war with Amazon and other cloud computing companies for Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), a $10 billion contract from the Pentagon."
• "Google chose to withdraw because the contract may conflict with its corporate values, and its principles over the ethical use of AI."
• https://www.geekwire.com/2018/microsoft-defends-bid-10b-dod-cloud-contract-amid-criticism-government-use-technology/
• "Microsoft will not pull out of the competition for a $10 billion cloud contract for the Department of Defense, despite growing concerns about private companies selling new technologies to the federal government."
• https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-to-expand-azure-government-secret-cloud-option-for-handling-classified-data/
• "Microsoft announced plans to expand its Azure Government Secret service for handling classified data during its Government Cloud Forum in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 17."
• "Microsoft already has six government-only datacenter regions with DoD Impact Level 5 Provisional Authorization, including two regions for DoD workloads only. Secret is technically its own government classification not a provisional authority level. There are two levels of classifications. Microsoft has been authorized for "secret data" (not top-secret)." 
• https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/10/congressmen-call-ig-investigation-jedi-cloud-contract/152235/
• "Reps. Steve Womack, R-Ark., and Tom Cole, R-Okla.—both members of the influential House Appropriations Committee—authored a letter Monday to the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General expressing concern over JEDI’s requirements and the request for proposal process through which it was bid."
• "The letter suggests that some requirements, including one that mandates a cloud service provider meet Impact Level 6 requirements to host secret and top-secret data, were “unnecessary” and could “only be met by one contractor.” Amazon Web Services is the only company that currently meets that requirement, though the letter does not name the company."
• "JEDI, which the Pentagon received bids for on Oct. 12, is currently under bid protest by Oracle and IBM. Another competitor, Microsoft, announced in early October that it planned to meet the Pentagon’s rigorous security requirements and has repeatedly stated it is in the competition to win it."
• https://fcw.com/articles/2018/08/10/comment-schatz-jedi.aspx
• "The JEDI program is a multiyear effort to modernize DOD’s IT systems into a cloud services solution.  With an estimated value of $10 billion over 10 years, the winning contractor will be expected to deliver an enterprise-level commercial cloud solution, including infrastructure as a service and platform as a service, to all defense agencies and military branches."
• "After the JEDI RFI was first released in November 2017, IT Alliance for Public Sector Senior Vice President Trey Hodgkins told DOD that its cloud should consist of “multiple interoperable offerings” to provide competition and the “best value for both the warfighter and taxpayer.” - "He added that most Fortune 500 companies utilize multiple cloud solutions and that the use of a single cloud provider would leave DOD “captive” to that provider."
• "The winning bidder will be provided an initial two-year base contract, two consecutive three-year options, and a final two-year option to complete the work"
• https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-touts-its-coming-top-secret-cloud-certification-ahead-of-10-billion-jedi-contract-deadline/
• "On October 9, Microsoft officials said in a blog post that the company was on track to achieve the Top Secret U.S. classified data (Defense Information Systems Agency Impact Level 6) certification by the first quarter of 2019. That certification is necessary for hosting the most sensitive and classified information."
• "Microsoft also is planning to expand FedRAMP High coverage to its Azure public cloud by the end of the year..." 
• https://government.diginomica.com/2018/10/11/the-us-governments-jedi-project-how-not-to-handle-a-public-sector-cloud-procurement/
• Sam Gordy, IBM’s US Federal General Manager, outlines three main objections:
• "JEDI’s primary flaw lies in mandating a single cloud environment for up to 10 years. Leading global enterprises want clouds that are flexible, provide access to the best applications from multiple vendors, and can smoothly transition legacy systems. JEDI is a complete departure from these best practices. It denies America’s warfighters access to the best technology available across multiple vendors, complicates the integration of legacy applications and walls off access to future innovations. JEDI’s single-cloud approach also would give bad actors just one target to focus on should they want to undermine the military’s IT backbone. The world’s largest businesses are increasingly moving in a multi-cloud direction because of security, flexibility and resilience; the Pentagon is moving in precisely the opposite direction."
• "JEDI turns its back on government-recognized best practices. Recently, the Office of Management and Budget issued a new government-wide cloud strategy, “cloud smart,” that specifically emphasizes the need for multi-cloud and hybrid solutions and calls for a “technology neutral” approach. That’s not what we see in JEDI, which also ignores the intent of Congress to ensure America’s warfighters benefit from healthy competition and access to multiple technologies from multiple suppliers."
• "Finally, the JEDI solicitation restricts the field of competition. Certain requirements in the RFP either mirror one vendor’s internal processes or unnecessarily mandate that certain capabilities be in place by the bid submission deadline versus when the work would actually begin. Such rigid requirements serve only one purpose: to arbitrarily narrow the field of bidders."
• Oracle's complaint: "The technology industry is innovating around next generation cloud at an unprecedented pace and JEDI virtually assures [the DoD] will be locked into legacy cloud for a decade or more. The single-award approach is contrary to industry’s multi-cloud strategy, which promotes constant competition, fosters innovation and lowers prices. The DoD seeks to procure so-called ‘commercial services’ that are wholly inconsistent with the commercial sector and the D&F [Determination and Findings] falls far from meeting the rigorous legal standards required for a single award contract."
• https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/29/what-each-cloud-company-could-bring-to-the-pentagons-10-b-jedi-cloud-contract/
• https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/15/why-the-pentagons-10-billion-jedi-deal-has-cloud-companies-going-nuts/
• https://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2018/07/26/dod-jedi-final-bids.aspx
• https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/enabling-intelligent-cloud-and-intelligent-edge-solutions-for-government/
• "Azure Government Secret regions available in Q1 2019"
• https://www.geekwire.com/2018/return-jedi-cloud-industry-closely-eyeing-big-pentagon-cloud-contract/