Page 29 - Federal Computer Week, May/June 2019

Commentary|BY NICK WAKEMAN iseditor-in-chiefof Washington Technology.
Is JEDI destined to be just another contract?
Despite all the talk of a single provider under the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, DOD seems to be heading for a multi-cloud future
Since the Defense Department launched its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract, DOD has been roundly criticized for its single-provider strategy.
Many in industry have complained that the approach cuts off the military from future innovation and flies in the face of legislation and regulations that dictate multiple-award contracts should be the default for government contracting. Congress also got involved and issued several requirements that DOD had to meet to continue its strategy.
Through all that heat, DOD has been steadfast in its adherence to a single cloud provider for JEDI. Officials have talked about the need for the military to have a single data lake to take advantage of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. DOD has also discussed the need for speed in fielding such a massive cloud.
JEDI has become a run-off between Amazon Web Services and Microsoft now that Oracle and IBM have been eliminated, though Oracle’s lawsuit continues at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
Yet although DOD has not wavered in its single-award approach for the past 18 months, the rhetoric has changed, and much of that change is being driven by Dana Deasy, who became DOD’s CIO in May 2018.
From the beginning, Deasy talked about DOD’s need for a world- class cloud infrastructure that would involve multiple clouds. He has sounded like part of his role is to reassure the companies that don’t win JEDI that there will still be cloud opportunities for them.
Two recent developments have reinforced that notion. One was DOD’s statement announcing JEDI’s down-select to AWS and
JEDI is shaping up to be a sizable contract but not the game-changer we all expected a year ago.
Microsoft. The second was some of the language in a request for information detailing the need
for a contractor to support DOD’s Cloud Computing Program Office.
Here is what DOD spokeswoman Elissa Smith said in announcing the down-select on April 10: “DOD remains committed to adopting
the best enterprise cloud solution that fits its unique and critical needs. The scope and complexity of DOD’s mission requires multiple clouds from multiple vendors. JEDI is one element of DOD’s overall multi-cloud strategy and part of larger efforts to modernize
information technology across the DOD enterprise.”
And here is the statement from the RFI released in early April: “JEDI Cloud is an important first step to acquiring a general-purpose cloud capable of delivering infrastructure and platform services for the majority of the department’s mission. JEDI Cloud will also serve as a pathfinder
for DOD to understand how to deploy enterprise cloud at scale while effectively accounting for security, governance and modern architectures.”
In those two statements,
it sounds as though DOD is downplaying the importance of JEDI and talking about a pilot project rather than a contract with a $10 billion ceiling.
Are those statements meant
to assuage the concerns of companies not named AWS or Microsoft? Are they meant to reassure Congress or quiet discord in the DOD ranks, where different components will likely fight tooth and nail to go their own way? Or is it all those things?
JEDI could easily become just one of several vehicles DOD uses for cloud acquisitions, which means that $10 billion ceiling
will never happen. I think that $1 billion or maybe $1.5 billion over 10 years is more likely. That’s a sizable contract but not the game- changer we all expected a year ago. n
NICK WAKEMAN
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