{"id":29355,"date":"2019-12-11T00:29:07","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T00:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2019\/12\/11\/full-speed-ahead-first-phase-of-jedi-rollout-expected-in-february\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:18:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:18:03","slug":"full-speed-ahead-first-phase-of-jedi-rollout-expected-in-february","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/it-networks\/2019\/12\/11\/full-speed-ahead-first-phase-of-jedi-rollout-expected-in-february\/","title":{"rendered":"Full speed ahead: First phase of JEDI rollout expected in February"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. \u2014 One day before Amazon chief Jeff Bezos gave a keynote address at the Reagan National Defense Forum, never uttering the word \u201cJEDI,\u201d the Pentagon\u2019s chief information officer spoke with great confidence that Amazon\u2019s protest of the department\u2019s enterprise cloud contract <\/a>award will go nowhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, CIO Dana Deasy confirmed to Defense News during an exclusive interview that the Department of Defense is moving full speed ahead with its choice of Microsoft <\/a>to serve the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure program \u2014 otherwise known as JEDI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also said that the first phase of the rollout \u2014 the unclassified cloud environment \u2014 should be available in February 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been through this very long, drawn-out process now. We\u2019ve gone from GAO [the Government Accountability Office] to Federal Claims Court to the [inspector general]. In each and all cases, we\u2019ve come out in a very positive position, as we always felt strongly we would,\u201d Deasy said. \u201cWhat was somewhat frustrating is we brought together some world-class people to create this vision of a large-scale cloud that you could provision, that you could use to develop [software] differently, that you could put out in the tactical edge and that could support AI. Those same people were constantly being pulled in to have to address all the issues around the protest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, the contract award was delayed for months due to a protest and court case filed by Oracle, which levied several conflict of interest allegations against competitor Amazon. Oracle\u2019s case is currently <\/a>in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, having lost in a lower court<\/a>. In November, Federal Times broke the story about Amazon\u2019s plans to protest the JEDI award to Microsoft through the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, obtaining a video of Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy at an all-hands meeting with Amazon Worldwide stating that the company will \u201cpush the government to shine a light on what really happened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A redacted version of the AWS complaint alleges that the DoD source-selection team made several \u201cegregious\u201d and \u201cunfounded\u201d decisions <\/a>during the cloud award, ultimately not complying with the contents of its own request for proposals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complaint also tied the decision to several disparaging statements made by President Donald Trump about Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese shifts in the DoD evaluators\u2019 assessments of AWS\u2019s proposal, including the significance of AWS\u2019s security advantages, occurred as President Trump increased the intensity of his public attacks against Mr. Bezos, Amazon\/AWS, and the Washington Post,\u201d the complaint reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Dec. 7, Bezos spoke during a fireside chat at the Reagan National Defense Forum, but he did not address the controversial cloud contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is seen at a press conference in September 06, 2012. The federal government hopes to provide agencies easier access to buying from Amazon and other e-commerce giants, though some worry about compliance with procurement standards. (Joe Klamar\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Unlike protests filed in the GAO, protests filed in federal court do not bring an automatic stay in performance. But regardless of regulatory standards, moving forward with Microsoft introduces a risk that a stay later in the process could be more disruptive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, Deasy said he never considered a delay in performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNever. From the beginning, the way we constructed the teams and organized how to write the RFP to where we are today, there was such deep consideration and due diligence \u2014 making sure we followed all the regulations,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve told the team: \u2018Let\u2019s just not sit and wait. Let\u2019s start to get the environment ready so when we come out of the protest, we haven\u2019t lost any momentum.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t