Pentagon Cancels $10 Billion JEDI Cloud Deal Awarded To Microsoft

The Department of Defense on Tuesday announced the cancellation of a $10 billion ‘JEDI’ cloud services contract awarded to Microsoft in 2019 amid a fierce legal battle involving Amazon – which thought it was a shoe-in before the Trump administration told Bezos and crew to pound sand.

According to the Pentagon, “due to evolving requirements, increased cloud conversancy, and industry advances, the JEDI Cloud contract no longer meets its needs.”

That said, the DoD wants Amazon and Microsoft to ‘split’ a new version of JEDI – as the need for enterprise-scale cloud capabilities still exists, according to CNBC.

The Pentagon said in the press release that it still needs enterprise-scale cloud capability and announced a new multi-vendor contract known as the Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability. The agency said it plans to solicit proposals from both Amazon and Microsoft for the contract, adding that they are the only cloud service providers that can meet its needs.

The lucrative JEDI contract was intended to modernize the Pentagon’s IT operations for services rendered over as many as 10 years. Microsoft was awarded the cloud computing contract in 2019, beating out market leader Amazon Web Services.

A month later, Amazon’s cloud computing unit filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims protesting the JEDI decision.

The company argued that President Donald Trump’s bias against Amazon and its CEO, Jeff Bezos, influenced the Pentagon to give the contract to Microsoft. -CNBC

Microsoft shares went ‘soft’ on the news: