A new Department of Defense strategy document laying out the military's computing needs outside the continental United States does not mention JEDI.
The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract was initially set to serve almost all of the DoD's cloud computing needs, but it has been held up indefinitely in court.
The $10bn JEDI contract was awarded to Microsoft in October 2019, but that was quickly challenged by presumptive frontrunner AWS.
The company claims that then-President Trump blocked it from winning the deal due to personal animosity against CEO Jeff Bezos. A court case is ongoing, with the DoD repeatedly hinting it would cancel JEDI should the case drag out.
Now, with the case very much taking a significant time, a new Pentagon document suggests it is already seeking alternatives.
Its OCONUS (outside the continental United States) cloud strategy document makes no mention of JEDI, nor does it discuss any single-enterprise clouds.
“A warfighter carrying out a mission requires persistent access to information hosted by various cloud providers, in different environments, and at multiple classification levels,” it states instead. While the DoD would have used a few bespoke cloud contracts outside of JEDI, it previously expected the contract to serve most of its needs.
The strategy continues: “This information ecosystem must include data to and from various tactical devices and mission partner environments that enable information sharing with coalition partners. Mission owner and warfighter access to information must not be tethered to a specific cloud solution or data center. They must be available regardless of geographical location or coalition partnership.”
Data should be processed close to the source, and stored as close as possible, to lower latency and improve security. "Users must have access to deployable cloud computing, high-performance computing, and Edge computing capabilities as they become available," the report notes.
"This includes innovative cloud services that enable agile software development, robust collaboration, and powerful analytics such as Al/ML. Individually approving and implementing these capabilities at the point of need results in duplicative efforts and sub-optimal use of capacity."
The DoD is currently developing a wider software modernization strategy, which will update its existing 2019 cloud strategy document - one that, at the time, was all about JEDI.
