On Wednesday, the Pentagon gave contracts for cloud computing totaling $9 billion to Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Oracle.
The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), an IT modernization initiative to create a sizable, shared commercial cloud for the Department of Defense, has been replaced with the multi-cloud Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC).
According to the deal release, the separate contracts, which have a notional top line of $9 billion and are valid through 2028, would offer the Department of Defense enterprise-wide, globally accessible cloud services across all security domains and classification levels.
A representative for the Department of Defense named U.S. Navy Commander Jessica McNulty said in a statement that the JWCC was a multiple-award procurement made up of four contracts with a combined total of $9 billion.
The Pentagon finally made the decision to award a JWCC enterprise-wide contract, after delaying it for several months.
Using the JEDI concept, the Pentagon tried to move to the cloud a few years ago, but the effort failed when the procurement process was halted by legal action.
This agreement may bring the military closer to private sector businesses, many of which distribute their cloud computing work among various vendors.
