WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Pentagon stated on Tuesday that it was canceling a US$10 billion JEDI cloud-computing project that had been awarded to Microsoft during the Trump administration. The government will organize a second round of bids, allowing several corporations, including Amazon.com, to compete.
Microsoft won the contract for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud, or JEDI, in November 2019, beating over Amazon, which is part of a larger revamp of the Pentagon’s information technology systems.
The following is a timeline of key dates leading up to the award:
JULY 26, 2018: The Pentagon issued the final request for proposals, looking for a single winner to ensure the technology’s speedy implementation. The contract, worth ten billion dollars over ten years, was supposed to be granted in September. AUGUST 6, 2018: Oracle Corporation filed a protest with the Defense Department, claiming that the Pentagon would be tied into a legacy contract for a decade or more if the contract was awarded to a single vendor rather than allowing for several winners.
Google, owned by Alphabet Inc., announced on October 8 that it would no longer be competing for the contract, citing that the company’s new ethical rules did not align with the initiative, among other reasons.
NOV. 14, 2018: Oracle’s protest was denied by the Government Accountability Office, which found that the agency “reasonably” determined that the single-award approach was in the government’s best interests for a variety of reasons, including national security concerns, and that it complied with applicable law.
APRIL 26, 2019: Amazon and Microsoft have been chosen to compete for the contract again.
JULY 19, 2019: Four Republican members of Congress, including leading member of the House Armed Services Committee Mac Thornberry, issued Trump a letter pushing him to proceed with the US$10 billion cloud contract.
AUGUST 1, 2019: The Pentagon opted to put off awarding the US$10 billion cloud-computing contract after Trump indicated his administration was looking into Amazon’s bid after receiving objections from other tech firms.
ON THE 25TH OF OCTOBER, 2019, THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCED THAT MICROSOFT HAD WON THE CONTRACT.
ON THE 14TH OF NOVEMBER, 2019, Amazon said that it is disputing the Pentagon’s award to Microsoft, citing concerns that politics interfered with a fair contracting process.
NOV. 15, 2019: After Amazon announced preparations to protest the Pentagon’s decision, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper dismissed any allegation of bias in the Pentagon’s decision.
The Department of Defense awarded a lucrative US$10 billion cloud contract to rival Microsoft due to “improper pressure” and favoritism from US President Donald Trump, according to Amazon.
JAN. 22, 2020: Amazon filed a move in court to halt the Department of Defense and Microsoft from implementing the contract until a court determines on its contract award protest.
FEBRUARY 10, 2020: In its complaint, Amazon sought to depose Trump and Esper in order to determine whether the president was attempting to “screw Amazon” when the Pentagon granted a cloud computing contract to rival Microsoft.
MARCH 7, 2020: A US court said Amazon is likely to prevail on a key basis in its lawsuit to Microsoft’s cloud contract award.
APRIL 15, 2020: After numerous officials claimed their chats were confidential “presidential communications,” the Pentagon’s inspector general said he couldn’t tell if the White House influenced the award of a US$10 billion contract to Microsoft over Amazon.
APRIL 17, 2020: A US judge has placed Amazon’s case on hold.
The Defense Department concluded a re-evaluation of its US$10 billion JEDI cloud computing contract proposals on September 4, 2020, and determined that Microsoft’s bid was the best.
APRIL 28, 2021: A judge refused to reject Amazon’s accusations that the Trump administration influenced the Pentagon’s decision to award Microsoft the US$10 billion JEDI cloud computing contract.
(Katanga Johnson and Chris Sanders contributed reporting; Lisa Shumaker edited the piece.)/n
