A protest in court is pending over Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud, or JEDI, the contract is intended to give the military better access to data and technology from remote locations.
Amazon asks court to pause Microsoft's work on Pentagon's JEDI contract
January 23, 2020 / 3:49 AM / Updated 9 hours ago
(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc said on Wednesday it filed a motion in court to pause the U.S. Department of Defense and Microsoft Corp from carrying out an up to $10 billion cloud computing deal until a court rules on its protest of the contract award.
Amazon, originally considered to be the favorite to win the award, had indicated last week that it would file a temporary restraining order to require the Pentagon and Microsoft to hold off beyond initial activities for the contract. . .
The procurement process has been delayed by legal complaints and conflict of interest allegations. Most recently, Amazon has blamed U.S. President Donald Trump for bias against the company and for improperly pressuring the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Mark Esper has rejected that there was bias and said the Pentagon made its choice fairly and freely without external influence.______________________________________________________
WHAT HAPPENED?
30 March 2018
JEDI Cloud > $10B 10-Year IDIQ Department of Defense Contract
IT=Internet Tech and everything - the IoT or Internet of Everything - is going 'into the Cloud'
The Insider
DOD plans to release second draft solicitation for JEDI cloud
And DoD expects a fast-moving procurement. It released a draft solicitation to coincide with the industry day, with a two-week window for initial responses (due March 21), a final solicitation scheduled in May, and the IDIQ award in to be made in September.
DoD plans to have JEDI services online in fiscal 2019, with more advanced capabilities added in 2020.
The department hasn’t officially put a price on the contract, which analysts speculate could be as much as $10 billion, but DoD Chief Management Officer Jay Gibson, in a call with reporters after the event, did allow that, “It’s fair to say we anticipate that this will be a multibillion dollar procurement.”
One rumbling in the contractor community is that the JEDI solicitation is inclined toward favoring Amazon Web Services (AWS), the biggest player in cloud services.
AWS has a 10-year contract with the CIA for services to the Intelligence Community, is already authorized at Impact Level 5, and recently launched as Secret-level region open to government customers outside of the IC.
AWS is considered one of the favorites for the JEDI contract.
In a tangential development, after DoD recently awarded a fast-track $950 million contract to REAN Cloud, Oracle filed a protest casting aspersions on the secretive process behind the award and REAN’s ties to AWS. DoD this week did a quick about-face, cutting the value of that deal to $65 million and limiting its scope to the U.S. Transportation Command. . . "
DOD to clarify its cloud plans with industry day
The Government Accountability Office dismissed a bid protest filed in February against a $7 million sole-source cloud support contract related to the Defense Department’s JEDI Acquisition.
A bid protest filed against a $7 million cloud support contract for the Defense Department’s effort to move to an enterprisewide commercial cloud has been dismissed.The $7 million cloud support contract attracted attention in February when the department selected a little-known contractor, Eagle Harbor Solutions LLC, for such a high-profile award. The contract is to provide consulting support services to the Cloud Executive Steering Committee, which is playing a major role in the Pentagon’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud acquisition.
A Nextgov investigation found the company, an Alaska Native-owned 8(a) small disadvantaged business, had only a single employee and little past performance in government according to government procurement records. The company later sent a statement to Nextgov stating it had a staff of five, and that its corporate structure allowed it to share certain staff with sister companies of its parent company, Koniag Inc.
The protest, lodged by Interoperability Clearinghouse on Feb. 5, alleged the Defense Department failed to conduct a reasonable responsibility determination of Eagle Harbor Solutions’ capabilities and resources in awarding it a sole-source contract to support the JEDI cloud acquisition.
The Government Accountability Office dismissed by the protest on March 12, deciding that Interoperability Clearinghouse, a not-for-profit entity based in Alexandria, Virginia, “is not an interested party to challenge this sole-source award to an Alaska Native Corporation under the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program.”
While agencies do sometimes cease work on a contract during a bid protest, there is no indication the Defense Department slowed its work during the duration of the protest. Defense officials held an industry day event and released a draft request for proposals last week for its JEDI cloud acquisition, would experts estimate could be worth as much as $10 billion over 10 years.
The Defense Department did not respond to an immediate request for comment
Source: http://www.nextgov.com
Mar 7, 2018 - The Defense Department shed some light on its much-anticipated Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud acquisition at a March 7 industry day, and outlined a surprisingly short timeframe for finalizing a multi-billion, single-award contract. DOD officials hope to have a final request for proposals ...
Mar 9, 2018 - On March 7th, the Department of Defense (DoD) held its Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative (JEDI) Cloud Industry Day and released its draft JEDI Cloud Request for Proposals (the RFP). DoD announced, and the draft RFP reflects, a single-award IDIQ approach to execute a contract lasting up to 10-years for ...
Mar 14, 2018 - What does a winning proposal look like for the 10-year, single-award, $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) commercial cloud contract? That will probably depend on contractor responses to the technical attributes featured in JEDI's draft RFP, such as evaluation, price, and other critical ...
Mar 7, 2018 - Defense Digital Service Director Chris Lynch speak during the JEDI Cloud Industry Day in Arlington, Va. March 7, 2018. The unclassified event outlined the Defense Dept.'s acquisition plans for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (
17 December 2017
Star Wars: The Last Jedi > The Spirits of The Season
Your MesaZona blogger got 'wired' first thing today - hitting up a source that's not been connected with in far too long a time: Wired, one of the information sources for publishing this blog. Needless to say, the original George Lucas' Star War franchise was sucked-up by Disney who produced the last few episodes, with this being the most recent feature on the big screen.
We now almost every year get Santa Claus and Star Wars at the same time: Make-Believe or not, convenient fiction or fantasy, or not - they both have their fans in holiday season. https://www.wired.com/story/star-wars-last-jedi-inclusion/
Star Wars: The Last Jedi Will Bother Some People. Good
The Last Jedi isn’t here to appease the old guard.
And that goes for both categories of reactionaries—the Star Wars fan upset that the franchise’s heroes now include (::clutches pearls::) women and people of color, and the misogynist, racist, classist, dark side of the populace that’s always been present, wielding power in one form or another. In themes and plot, The Last Jedi asserts again and again that monolithic dominance isn't good for anyone. The movie isn't here to Make the Galaxy Great Again. It's to tell the stories of the people who want to actually fix it.This, of course, manifests itself in ways large and small. . . But the real issues The Last Jedi brings to the fore emerge not in character traits, but over much longer arcs. . . Some of the best bits of The Last Jedi are open to interpretation, and over-analysis would suck out all the fun. But suffice to say, The Last Jedi isn't without a point of view, and the Force-sensitive will see it right away. . . Every Star Wars movie from here on out will probably be considered in the context of the period and political climate surrounding its release.
Jedi have always been leery of politics and politicians, and George Lucas himself has said that George W. Bush is Darth Vader and Dick Cheney is Emperor Palpatine. But writer-director Rian Johnson’s movie seems to be turning those covert ideas into overt messages—first by portraying a universe with a more inclusive cast of characters, and then by making them actually talk about what it means to “resist” (aka be in the Resistance) and how to achieve those goals.. . . the movie that will likely resonate for a long time: that the latest Star Wars seems far more interested in reinventing the franchise than merely re-reawakening it. This is true for both its narrative, and characters used to tell it. There may always be people who don’t want more broad representation in cinema, who would rather things stayed the same, or even reverted. This isn’t going to happen with Star Wars, so perhaps it’s time that those people take a piece of advice from Kylo himself—and let the past die.
________________________________________________________________
One insert here about the original character Princess Leia
We now almost every year get Santa Claus and Star Wars at the same time: Make-Believe or not, convenient fiction or fantasy, or not - they both have their fans in holiday season. https://www.wired.com/story/star-wars-last-jedi-inclusion/
Star Wars: The Last Jedi Will Bother Some People. Good
And that goes for both categories of reactionaries—the Star Wars fan upset that the franchise’s heroes now include (::clutches pearls::) women and people of color, and the misogynist, racist, classist, dark side of the populace that’s always been present, wielding power in one form or another. In themes and plot, The Last Jedi asserts again and again that monolithic dominance isn't good for anyone. The movie isn't here to Make the Galaxy Great Again. It's to tell the stories of the people who want to actually fix it.This, of course, manifests itself in ways large and small. . . But the real issues The Last Jedi brings to the fore emerge not in character traits, but over much longer arcs. . . Some of the best bits of The Last Jedi are open to interpretation, and over-analysis would suck out all the fun. But suffice to say, The Last Jedi isn't without a point of view, and the Force-sensitive will see it right away. . . Every Star Wars movie from here on out will probably be considered in the context of the period and political climate surrounding its release.
Jedi have always been leery of politics and politicians, and George Lucas himself has said that George W. Bush is Darth Vader and Dick Cheney is Emperor Palpatine. But writer-director Rian Johnson’s movie seems to be turning those covert ideas into overt messages—first by portraying a universe with a more inclusive cast of characters, and then by making them actually talk about what it means to “resist” (aka be in the Resistance) and how to achieve those goals.. . . the movie that will likely resonate for a long time: that the latest Star Wars seems far more interested in reinventing the franchise than merely re-reawakening it. This is true for both its narrative, and characters used to tell it. There may always be people who don’t want more broad representation in cinema, who would rather things stayed the same, or even reverted. This isn’t going to happen with Star Wars, so perhaps it’s time that those people take a piece of advice from Kylo himself—and let the past die.
________________________________________________________________
One insert here about the original character Princess Leia
Carrie Fisher wrote some of Star Wars: The Last Jedi's best lines
Radio Times-48 minutes ago
To start with, it's no spoiler to say that Carrie Fisher is pretty bloomin' awesome in The Last Jedi. As Princess Leia, she continues to guide the Rebellion, even as it looks to be in its death throes, and inspires her small but spirited army in the fight against the First Order and her angsty son Kylo Ren. But Fisher, who passed ...
26 October 2019
A Win For The Cyber Warfare War-Fighter: Microsoft Snags A Big $10B Pentagon Contract for JEDI
AN ENTERPRISE CLOUD SOLUTION, but just hold on to your laser sabers, guys > The JEDI contract process continues to be under investigation by the DoD inspector general and stuck in federal court.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Every media outlet in The Universe has their stories
IT and Cloud Report
Amazon or Microsoft? DoD picks a winner for its controversial JEDI contract
"Microsoft won the contract for the Department of Defense’s enterprise cloud, potentially worth $10 billion over 10 years, the Pentagon announced Oct. 25.The tech giant won the award over Amazon Web Services, just three days after Secretary of Defense Mark Esper recused himself from the award after months of review because his son worked for IBM. Amazon was widely considered by industry to be the front runner for the award. . .
This award is an important step in execution of the Digital Modernization Strategy
The DoD cloud strategy called for a multi-cloud, multi-vendor strategy, but industry has had concerns that the award will lead to vendor lock-in. . . "
Amazon Web Services AWS is currently the only cloud provider for the U.S. intelligence community, having hosted secret and top-secret classified data for nearly six years.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
By Patrick Tucker Defense One
"The outcome comes as a surprise to many observers who described Amazon as the almost-certain winner of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, program. Amazon was considered by many to be the only qualified bidder because it had the largest enterprise cloud infrastructure and already had reached the necessary highest security level, known as Impact Level 6.
