The Pentagon is scrapping a multibillion-dollar cloud computing contract, which sparked a row between Microsoft and Amazon. The Department of Defence has stopped the funding of the ‘Jedi’ project. When Microsoft won the contract, its tech rival, Amazon, claimed that the decision was biased due to then President Donald Trump. However, on Tuesday, the Department of Defence (DoD) stated, “With the shifting technology environment, it has become clear that the Jedi Cloud contract, which has long been delayed, jo longer meets the requirements to fill the DoD’s capability gaps.” Hence Microsoft and Amazon are welcomed to offer bids for the next project.
The two tech giants were the only suppliers capable of meeting the deadline. The Jedi project was put forward to replace the DoD’s ageing computer networks with one single cloud system, which would have hosted classified secrets and that will be able to provide intelligence-based analysis to the military. However, when the project was given to Microsoft, Amazon lodged a legal challenge to object the decision.
The Pentagon press release said that since technology has evolved, “cloud conservancy” will no longer be needed.
