AWS, Google, Microsoft and Oracle each secured a part of the US military’s Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract. The announcement marks the end of a long-lasting competition to secure the contract.
The US Department of Defense has decided that the €8.5 billion JWCC contract will be distributed among four major cloud providers. Last year, each cloud provider was named as a candidate for the contract’s various subfields. The formal announcement ends a long-lasting competition. The contract runs through 2028.
The JWCC project sets out to give all components of the US military access to commercial cloud solutions. Military departments should soon be able to deploy cloud solutions for tasks and missions in real-time. All military personnel are expected to get into contact with the cloud in one way or another, from the headquarters to the barracks.
Successor to JEDI
The JWCC project is the successor to the JEDI contract. This €9.5 billion contract was awarded to Microsoft in 2019. The decision was met with scrutiny, as many expected the contract to be awarded to market leader AWS.
Moreover, critics deemed it risky for a single cloud provider to host and analyze sensitive US military data. AWS went to court in an attempt to overturn the decision. The tech giant was backed by Oracle and IBM. The US Department of Defense initially stood by its choice.
Multiple providers
However, in July 2021, the JEDI contract was officially cancelled and replaced by the more recent JWCC contract. One of the biggest differences is that the JWCC contract distributes tasks among multiple vendors instead of awarding all workloads to a single organization.
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