INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The JEDI drama never stops
The $10 billion, decade-long cloud contract has produced a series of twists and turns since the project was announced in 2018
These include everything from court challenges to the president getting involved to accusations of bias and conflict of interest
It has had all this and more
Today, in the latest plot twist, the Secretary of Defense Mark Esper recused himself from the selection process because one of his kids
works at a company that was involved earlier in the process.
Several reports name his son, Luke Esper, who has worked at IBM since February
The RFP closed in April and Esper is a Digital Strategy Consultant, according to his LinkedIn page (which is no longer available), but given
the persistent controversy around this deal, his dad apparently wanted to remove even a hint of impropriety in the selection and review
process.
Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Jonathan Rath Hoffman issued an official DoD Cloud update earlier today:
As you all know, soon after
becoming Secretary of Defense in July, Secretary Esper initiated a review of the Department cloud computing plans and to the JEDI
As part of this review process he attended informational briefings to ensure he had a full understanding of the JEDI program and the
universe of options available to DoD to meet its cloud computing needs
Although not legally required to, he has removed himself from participating in any decision making following the information meetings, due
to his adult son employment with one of the original contract applicants
Out of an abundance of caution to avoid any concerns regarding his impartiality, Secretary Esper has delegated decision making concerning
the JEDI Cloud program to Deputy Secretary Norquist
The JEDI procurement will continue to move to selection through the normal acquisition process run by career acquisition
professionals.
Perhaps the biggest beef around this contract, which was supposed to be decided in August, has been the winner-take-all
Only one company will eventually walk away a winner, and there was a persistent belief in some quarters that the deal was designed
specifically with Amazon in mind
Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz took that concern directly to the president in 2018.
The DoD has repeatedly denied there was any vendor in mind
when it created the RFP, and internal Pentagon reviews, courts and a government watchdog agencyrepeatedly found the procurement process was
fair, but the complaints continue
The president got involved in August when he named his then newly appointed defense secretary to look into the JEDI contract procurement
Now Espers is withdrawing from leading that investigation, and it will be up to others, including his deputy secretary, to finally bring
this project over the finish line.
Last April, the DoD named Microsoft and Amazon as the two finalists
It worth pointing out that both are leaders in Infrastructure as a Service market share with around 16% and 33%, respectively.
It also worth
noting that while $10 billion feels like a lot of money, it spread out over a 10-year period with lots of possible out clauses built into
To put this deal size into perspective, a September report from Synergy Research found that worldwide combined infrastructure and software
service spending in the cloud had already reached $150 billion, a number that is only expected to continue to rise over the next several
years as more companies and government agencies like the DoD move more of their workloads to the cloud.
For complete TechCrunch JEDI
coverage, see the Pentagon JEDI Contract.
Much to Oracle chagrin, Pentagon names Microsoft and Amazon as $10B JEDI cloud contract
