JEDI Cloud Computing Contract Award Imminent.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin
• Position: Best of the Web

* A contract decision for the Defense Department's highly anticipated and controversial joint enterprise defense infrastructure program is expected by the end of August, said the Pentagon's chief information officer.

The multibillion-dollar initiative, known as JEDI, is meant to create an expansive cloud computing system for the Defense Department. It is currently in the source selection process, which is pitting Amazon Web Services and Microsoft against each other for the lucrative contract. Cloud technology allows users to store and access data from anywhere at any time over the internet rather than on a local computer hard drive. The program--which could be worth up to $ 10 billion--was embroiled in a legal challenge before the Court of Federal Claims brought by Oracle America, which objected to the contract going to a single vendor. The Pentagon is eyeing late summer for an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity firmed-fixed price contract award, said Dana Deasy.

"We have a source selection process that... will complete its natural process towards the end of August," he told reporters...