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Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), a cloud business with a cap of $10 billion, that integrates and manages data into the cloud using artificial intelligence, promoted by the US Department of Defense, was awarded to Microsoft. There were many expectations that Amazon would be the main character of the JEDI bidding competition, but Microsoft overturned it and won.
As of 2019, data operated by the U.S. Department of Defense is stored in over 400 data centers across the United States. JEDI is planning to centrally manage data distributed in data centers in different regions in the cloud. As JEDI is an ultra-high-cost business with a cap of 10 billion dollars, famous conglomerates such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle participated in the bidding competition.
However, JEDI said that Amazon and the U.S. Department of Defense were prepared as pre-determined guidelines were only available for Amazon. Companies participating in the bidding competition responded to such reports. Oracle claimed that Amazon was alleged to facilitate employment for Pentagon employees and arbitrarily distort contract standards, but Google refused to compete for bidding because it contradicted AI ethical principles.
It can be said that Amazon’s cloud business skills are clear. According to a July report released by Gartner, an analyst firm focused on the IT sector, Amazon accounts for 48% of the cloud computing market and is far from Microsoft, the second-ranking Microsoft, which accounts for 16%.
However, on July 18, President Trump revealed that complaints from a number of tech companies, including large corporations, were flooded with Amazon’s contract with the Ministry of Defense. On August 1, the Ministry of Defense decided to temporarily suspend the JEDI admission following President Trump’s announcement. Then, on October 25, the Ministry of Defense announced that it had bid JEDI to Microsoft.
At the time of this announcement, the Department of Defense said that the acquisition process was conducted in accordance with laws and regulations, passed examination by the U.S. auditor and federal courts, and that all companies participating in the bidding competition were treated fairly and evaluated according to evaluation criteria.
Regarding this decision, Amazon said that it was amazed by the Ministry of Defense’s decision, and said that AWS as a leader in the field of cloud computing would have shown a different result than now if purely comparing product capabilities. The Washington Post pointed out that President Trump may have intervened in the JEDI decision and that it could be a violation of the law. In response, President Trump ridiculed the Washington Post of becoming a subsidiary of Amazon after it was acquired by Amazon in 2013 and satirizes on Twitter. Related information can be found here .
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