AWS has reportedly signed a secret $10bn cloud computing deal with the NSA
Bad blood between cloud giants
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The National Security Agency (NSA) has awarded a secretcloud computingcontract reportedly worth up to $10 billion toAmazonWeb Services (AWS), according to reports.
Code-named WildandStormy,Nextgovreports that while details about the contract are few and far between, it appears to be in line with NSA’s attempt to move its classified data repository to the cloud.
Interestingly, the existence of the secret contract came to light whenMicrosoft, one of the other bidders of the contract, filed abid protestwith the Government Accountability Office a couple of weeks after losing the lucrative deal to AWS.
“NSA recently awarded a contract for cloud computing services to support the Agency. The unsuccessful offeror has filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office. The Agency will respond to the protest in accordance with appropriate federal regulations,” an NSA spokesperson toldNextgov.
JEDI part deux?
While losing bidders have a right to file protest, the two dueling parties in this contract, AWS and Microsoft, have a bit of a history when it comes to federal contracts.
Last month thePentagon scrappedits multi-billion dollar Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract after years of legal wrangling. The contract was awarded to Microsoft in 2019, but Amazon, on behalf of AWS, secured an injunction toprevent Microsoftfrom beginning work on JEDI, eventually leading to the contract’s demise.
With WildAndStory, the tables have turned and it is Microsoft that is now protesting against the winning contractor, AWS.
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“Based on the decision we are filing an administrative protest via the Government Accountability Office. We are exercising our legal rights and will do so carefully and responsibly,” a Microsoft spokesperson toldNextgov.
The Government Accountability Office is expected to issue a decision on Microsoft’s protest by October 29, 2021.
ViaNextgov
With almost two decades of writing and reporting on Linux, Mayank Sharma would like everyone to think he’sTechRadar Pro’sexpert on the topic. Of course, he’s just as interested in other computing topics, particularly cybersecurity, cloud, containers, and coding.
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