DoD confirms Microsoft is JEDI winner, AWS attacks Trump

AWS has launched a scathing attack on the procurement process and President Trump

The US Department of Defense has (again) confirmed that Microsoft is the winner of the $10 billion JEDI contract, after AWS called the tender process into question.

'The Department has completed its comprehensive re-evaluation of the JEDI Cloud proposals and determined that Microsoft's proposal continues to represent the best value to the Government,' the DoD said in a statement. 'The JEDI Cloud contract is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract that will make a full range of cloud computing services available to the DoD.'

Work on the project halted earlier this year due to Amazon's court case, and the DoD has said there are still some issues to clear up before it can resume:

'While contract performance will not begin immediately due to the Preliminary Injunction Order issued by the Court of Federal Claims on February 13, 2020, DoD is eager to begin delivering this capability to our men and women in uniform.'

A Microsoft spokesperson told TechCrunch, "We're ready to get to work and make sure that those who serve our country have access to this much needed technology."

AWS, however, remains displeased. In a blog post it called the tender process 'flawed, biased, and politically corrupted' and goes on to say that the award 'creates a dangerous precedent that threatens the integrity of the federal procurement system'.

The blog post later pivots to attacking President Trump, who - according to rumour - stepped in personally to prevent an AWS win. It says Trump 'interfered in the JEDI procurement in order to steer the award away from AWS', accuses him of 'cronyism' and concludes that the process was 'corrupted by the President's self-interest'.

'There is a recurring pattern to the way President Trump behaves when he's called out for doing something egregious: first he denies doing it, then he looks for ways to push it off to the side, to distract attention from it and delay efforts to investigate it (so people get bored and forget about it). And then he ends up doubling down on the egregious act anyway.'

Trump's ongoing feud with Amazon is well-documented, and centres on Jeff Bezos - owner of both Amazon and the Washington Post, which has been highly critical of the President for much of his tenure.