WASHINGTON The Department of Defense will reassess its cloud-computing options if a federal court does not dismiss allegations of improper influence in the contract process for the project worth billions, a new DoD memo said.

The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud, awarded to Microsoft in October 2019, would provide a department-wide platform needed to develop artificial intelligence and computing capabilities for war fighters at the tactical edge. But if the U.S Court of Federal Claims clears the way for Amazon Web Services interference allegations against former President Donald Trump over the JEDI project, the Pentagon warned that the prospect of such a lengthy litigation process might bring the future of the JEDI cloud procurement into question, according to the memo from the DoD CIO office to Congress.

Under this scenario, the DoD CIO would reassess the strategy going forward, the memo read.

AWS has stated that it wants to collect sworn statements from Trump and other current and past senior officials, including former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Evidence AWS cites against Trump includes public and private statements about his dislike for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

These motions will be complex and elongate the timeline significantly, the memo said.

Building the JEDI cloud infrastructure has been delayed since the Pentagon awarded the contract, valued up to $10 billion over a decade,. Shortly after the award, AWS filed a lawsuit to block the department from working to build the enterprise cloud environment, alleging political interference and technical evaluation errors by the department during the selection process.

Regardless of the JEDI cloud litigation outcome, the department continues to have an urgent, unmet requirement, the DoD memo said. Specifically, the departments need for an enterprise-wide, commercial cloud services for all three classification levels, extending from the homefront to the tactical edge, at scale. We remain fully committed to meeting this requirement we hope through JEDI but this requirement transcends any one procurement, and we will be prepared to ensure it is met one way or another.

The allegations of interference by Trump add uncertainty to the JEDI cloud project under President Joe Bidens Department of Defense. Meanwhile, some industry experts have challenged the construct of the JEDI cloud, arguing that the contract shouldnt be a single award and instead should involve several vendors.

Sign up for the C4ISRNET newsletter about future battlefield technologies.

(please select a country) United States United Kingdom Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo, The Democratic Republic of The Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote D'ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and Mcdonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco Mongolia Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Reunion Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and The Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and The South Sandwich Islands Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand Timor-leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States United States Minor Outlying Islands Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Viet Nam Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, U.S. Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe

Subscribe

By giving us your email, you are opting in to the C4ISRNET Daily Brief.

If the court dismisses the improper influence allegations, then the department believes that the litigation of the remaining three counts would likely take four to five months, the memo stated.

Work on JEDI cloud would continue to be paused until the litigation process is complete, and DISA/CCPO [Defense Information Systems Agency/Cloud Computing Program Office] remains ready to resume management of the JEDI cloud work if/when the entire set of litigation is resolved in the governments favor.

See original here:

Pentagon could reassess future of JEDI cloud, depending on court action - C4ISRNet