
Did the Pentagon Make a Case for Multi-Cloud v. Vendor Lock-In?
Generally everybody will get a pony in spite of everything.
On this case, a gaggle of main cloud suppliers every gained a chunk of the Joint Warfighting Cloud Functionality (JWCC) undertaking to supply companies to the Division of Protection.
The latest announcement by the Pentagon put to mattress previous authorized fights over the undertaking to replace and supply industrial cloud companies for protection IT wants, carving up what has been estimated to be a $9 billion effort.
Selecting to work with Microsoft, Oracle, AWS, and Google delivered to a detailed a really contentious quarrel in regards to the prior award of a single contract to 1 cloud supplier, Microsoft.
AWS shared some of its plans to supply companies per the brand new contract. Microsoft also offered a bit of its roadmap below JWCC. As every vendor shares particulars, it appears the Pentagon has primarily nixed the potential for vendor lock-in because it takes a multi-cloud strategy.
Vendor lock-in, relying on who one speaks with, is both a blessing or a curse. It may possibly imply coping with only one service supplier to deal with all cloud-related issues. It may possibly additionally imply a scarcity of choices, limiting a corporation to solely the functions and sources that one vendor presents.
The general undertaking might have been a considerable windfall for a single cloud companies supplier — however the competitors had different plans. The undertaking extends throughout each army department and was simply too juicy for rivals to let go, no matter who gave the impression to be successful all of it. Given the scope of the undertaking, we must see if working with a number of distributors is both chaotic or a greater match.
What’s All of the Fuss?
The Division of Protection needs to carry cloud sources to all facets of its operations, together with battlefronts abroad. This would come with the Joint All-Area Command and Management initiative, which might join sensors throughout the army and assist the substitute intelligence developed for the duty.
The inclusion of a number of, high-profile hyperscalers on this deal is a big shift away from the one vendor strategy sought beforehand. This undertaking to overtake sure protection IT sources has been in play for a number of years with authorized disputes alongside the best way. The predecessor Joint Enterprise Protection Infrastructure (JEDI) contract was pegged to go to a sole cloud companies supplier. And that is the place it will get messy.
When it appeared like AWS may win that contract, Oracle went to courtroom over how the undertaking was being awarded. However then Microsoft gained the JEDI contract below the Trump administration, presumably stemming from then-President Trump’s moderately public animosity for Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos.
AWS began its personal authorized combat over the dealing with of the contract. In late 2019, Andy Jassy, then-CEO of AWS, claimed bias played a role within the collection of Microsoft for JEDI. By early 2020, AWS got the injunction it wanted to stymie the deal. Then in 2021, the Division of Protection threw within the towel and canceled the JEDI deal with Microsoft.
Beginning over, the Division of Protection got here up with a plan to work with the cadre of hyperscalers. And that brings a notion spoken in some corners of the cloud: Can main cloud suppliers discover methods to collaborate and cooperate with one another, particularly if the shopper requires cohesive companies?
Multi-cloud technique is nothing new, however the Division of Protection has unwittingly positioned itself as a doable case examine to observe.
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