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US Court Halts Pentagon Work with Microsoft on Cloud Contract

Peyton Bigora

   WASHINGTON - A federal judge in Washington has halted, for now, a major
   U.S. Defense Department cyber contract, blocking Microsoft Corp. from
   working on the Pentagon's JEDI cloud-computing initiative pending the
   resolution of a lawsuit brought by rival Amazon.com.

   In October, Microsoft was awarded the Pentagon's Joint Enterprise
   Defense infrastructure (JEDI) cloud contract, which has an estimated
   worth of around $10 billion over the next decade. The JEDI project will
   process and store classified data to provide the U.S. military improved
   communications with soldiers in the field as well as artificial
   intelligence to speed up war planning and fighting capabilities.

   By November, Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud computing
   division, filed a lawsuit alleging the Defense Department unfairly
   judged its bid for the contract. Amazon believes the process was
   tainted by U.S. President Donald Trump's animosity towards Jeff Bezos,
   Amazon's Chief Executive Officer and owner ofThe Washington
   Postnewspaper, which Trump has regularly accused of bias against him.

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