U.S. reviewing cloud contract
The Pentagon has announced that new Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is reviewing the bid process for the military’s $10-billion cloud-computing contract.
President Trump has criticized the process, citing complaints from other companies, as potentially biased toward Amazon.com Inc. The e-commerce giant and Microsoft Corp. have been competing for the contract, known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure plan, or JEDI.
In a statement, Pentagon spokeswoman Elissa Smith said no decision will be made on the program until the review is complete. Esper has previously said he wants to “take a hard look” at the JEDI contract.
The Washington Post reported Thursday, citing anonymous sources, that the White House ordered the Pentagon review. Amazon founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos owns the Post. Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump said last month that his administration would “take a very long look” at the contract, citing “tremendous complaints” about the process from companies no longer in the running. Oracle Corp. and IBM Corp. were eliminated from an earlier round of competition, leaving Amazon and Microsoft as the finalists.
The week before Trump’s comments, a federal judge tossed out a second challenge by Oracle alleging that the bidding process was rigged in Amazon’s favor.
The Pentagon had previously said it plans to award the contract by Aug. 23. It is not clear whether the review will delay the process.