Pentagon officials are meeting with Microsoft representatives in Washington this week to begin implementing the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract, even as Amazon is suing to block the award in federal court.
Defense Department spokeswoman Elissa Smith confirmed this week’s meetings in a statement to Inside Defense. In October, DOD awarded the JEDI contract to Microsoft Azure. The potential 10-year, $10 billion deal is intended to provide enterprise cloud computing services to units across the U.S. military, including those stationed in far-flung areas at the "tactical edge."
"The Department of Defense is confident in the JEDI Cloud Contract award and remains focused on getting this critical capability into the hands of our warfighters as quickly and efficiently as possible," Smith wrote. "The department's Cloud Computing Program Office (CCPO) continues to work with Microsoft to prepare the JEDI Cloud environment."
The meetings scheduled for Dec. 11-13 in Washington "are part of the requisite activities to prepare the cloud environment," Smith added.
Meanwhile, in a redacted complaint released yesterday, Amazon argued the JEDI contract should be recompeted due to President Trump's "improper influence" on DOD officials making decisions about the massive cloud contract. Amazon's lawyers contend Trump's public feud with Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos led to DOD officials overlooking or "systematically" removing the company's advantages over Microsoft.