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DOD Sticks to Single Source Strategy for JEDI Contract

The Defense Department opens bidding on the $10 billion cloud computing contract.

The U.S. Defense Department has released the request for proposals for the potential $10 billion cloud computing contract known as JEDI. Credit: LoboStudioHamburg/Pixabay

The U.S. Defense Department released its final request for proposals on the potential $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract, a massive cloud computing initiative. The department leadership has chosen to maintain its single source strategy.

Awarding the massive contract to a single contractor has stirred controversy within the cloud computing industry and on Capitol Hill. Critics contend that relying on a single company reduces opportunities for innovation and cost savings.

Furthermore, because only one contractor—Amazon Web Services—is currently the only company able to fulfill the requirement to host classified data within 180 days of the award, and secret and top secret data within 270 days, some critics feel the proposal is weighted in Amazon’s favor.

Other possible contenders include Google, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle.