Why does President Trump suddenly care who wins the Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud-storage contract?
The president is not known for wading deep into information technology policy. But on July 22, Trump tweeted about a Fox News segment alleging that the Pentagon was involved in a crooked scheme to award Amazon the coveted Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Program, or JEDI.
“It’s not just appropriate but vital that the president kills this contract” said Steve Hilton, a Fox News host.
The Pentagon was expected to choose between Amazon, the early favorite, and Microsoft. But on Thursday, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed that new Defense Secretary Mark Esper put a hold on the contract award while he reviews the process. "No decision will be made on the program until he has completed his examination,” said Elissa Smith.
Esper could decide to throw out the bids and ask for new ones, or cancel the JEDI program entirely and break up its cloud efforts into smaller chunks. If that happens, according to two former senior defense officials familiar with the drafting of the contract requirements, the program could be delayed, costs could rise by billions of dollars, and troops may head into combat lacking critical information.
Opposition From the Start
When the Pentagon’s plan to award a single contract for enterprise-wide commercial cloud services leaked through the press in November 2017, it generated immediate opposition. Industry groups representing established defense contractors lobbied the Pentagon and Congress to consider ..
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