The cloud is internet infrastructure at its most abstract. But, the ability of cloud providers to store and secure information, and make it accessible to many approved users at once, is the glue underpinning a lot of work, both remote and not. The Pentagon, which operates hundreds of bases across the world, is a prime candidate for a cloud provider, especially if that cloud can cleanly handle classified information and restricted access protocols. JEDI, launched in January 2018 in a memo so laden with Star Wars references that it was immediately retracted and reissued, looked to a single company to provide a cloud that did everything for the military. The original solicitation specifies that the cloud should be able to handle petabytes of unclassified data every few months. It is a problem that companies have solved for each other many, many times, though few entities operate on the scale of the Pentagon. The contract, instead, went to Microsoft, and then triggered a years-long legal fight over the fairness of how it was awarded. Pentagon contracting rules, especially for contracts awarded to a single provider, have a formal appeal and challenge process. Sometimes, the process helps make sure that a company promising an aircraft, for example, can actually deliver it. With JEDI, challenging the contract also meant freezing the entire process in time, as the military’s data storage and transfer needs evolved while the contract was unable to be filled. The long legal fight over JEDI kept the Pentagon from adopting one big cloud, and instead the military turned to a plethora of smaller cloud cities, often service-specific. The Air Force’s cloudONE met its needs for a modern cloud, while the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) turned to a range of other clouds. In total, the Pentagon operates 13 other clouds, though Acting Department of Defense Chief Information Officer John Sherman told press on July 6 that none of those clouds meet the Pentagon’s standards for enterprise services. So, even as the Pentagon cloud heads into an uneasy partnership, the door is open for other companies to compete for the contract if they can demonstrate they are capable.
