Pentagon Splits Up Disputed Cloud Contract

The Pentagon announced Wednesday that it has resolved the long-running battle among tech giants for its cloud computing contract by giving everybody a piece of the pie. Google, Oracle, Microsoft, and Amazon each won part of the deal that could total $9 billion by the time the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability project—originally called JEDI—wraps up in 2028, CNBC reports. The decision is in line with the increasingly common practice in business of not relying on a single cloud provider, which could help minimize disruptions in service.

The contract will be awarded in pieces, per the AP. No dollar amounts were allocated, per the Washington Business Journal; the money will be paid as orders for particular services are placed. The Defense Department said its goal is to have the companies provide "enterprise-wide globally available cloud services across all security domains and classification levels, from the strategic level to the tactical edge." The Pentagon gave the entire contract to Microsoft in 2019, touching off a legal and political battle. In July 2021, the government canceled the deal while it revisited its options. (More Pentagon stories.)