The human arsenal might be expansive beyond all limits, but it still doesn’t have anything more valuable than that tendency of ours to grow on a consistent basis. This tendency, in particular, has already allowed us to hit upon some huge milestones, with technology appearing as a rather unique member of the group. The main reason why technology’s credentials are so anomalous is based on its skill-set, which was unprecedented enough to realize all the possibilities for us that nobody could have ever imagined otherwise. Nevertheless, if we look a little bit closer, it should become clear how the whole runner was also very much inspired by the way we applied those skills across a real-world environment. The latter component was, in fact, what gave the creation a spectrum-wide presence, and consequentially, kickstarted a tech revolution. This revolution, as we discovered, will go on to scale up the human experience from every conceivable direction, but even after achieving such a monumental feat, technology will somehow continue to bring all the right goods to the table. The same has turned more and more evident in recent times, and truth be told, Pentagon’s latest decision does a lot to make that trend bigger and better moving forward.
After a lot of controversy last year, Pentagon has officially awarded a $9 billion JWCC, formerly known as JEDI, contract to Google Support Services, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Oracle, with the companies now expected to collectively build its cloud computing network. To give you a quick recap, the Department of Defense, back in 2019, had awarded Microsoft a 10-year long JEDI Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract. However, soon after the department’s announcement for the same, Amazon, who was one of the losing bidders at the time, came out all guns blazing and accused DoD of biased decision-making. The tech giant even filed a lawsuit to keep Microsoft from getting the contract. Eventually, it got what it wanted, as DoD terminated the stated JEDI contract in July 2021.
The department took this u-turn to rebrand the project as Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC), while also distributing it across multiple cloud infrastructures so to make sure that it’s not dependant on just one entity. But what all is actually included in JWCC? Well, it is basically a multiple-award contract vehicle under which the DoD can acquire commercial cloud capabilities and services directly from the contractor/s, and it can do so “at the speed of mission, at all classification levels, from headquarters to the tactical edge” As for what services the DoD can avail, the assortment includes elastic computing, storage, network infrastructure, advanced data analytics, fortified security, tactical edge devices, and more.
When questioned regarding the new $9 billion deal, Rick Wagner, Microsoft Federal President, said:
“With the announcement, Microsoft will help deliver mission-critical 21st century technology to our nation’s service members and strengthen U.S. national security. The selection is another clear demonstration of the trust the DoD places in Microsoft and our technologies.”
Despite all the bad blood, the same enthusiasm was also evident in AWS official statement:
“We are honored to have been selected for the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract and look forward to continuing our support for the Department of Defense. From the enterprise to the tactical edge, we are ready to deliver industry-leading cloud services to enable the DoD to achieve its critical mission.”