Pentagon Gives $9B in Cloud Contracts to Google, Oracle, Microsoft and Amazon – CNET [CNET]

The four tech giants are tasked with building out cloud computing networks for the US military.

The Defense Department on Wednesday announced that the Pentagon is divvying up $9 billion in cloud contracts between Google, Oracle, Microsoft and Amazon.

The contracts were awarded to the four tech companies to help build out the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability, or JWCC, which will streamline cloud computing for the US military across the globe. The companies are tasked with creating cloud networks that will “provide enterprise cloud capabilities for the Defense Department at all three security classifications: unclassified, secret and top secret,” the department said earlier this year.

Dividing the contracts between four companies helps the Pentagon avoid having to rely on a single company for all of its cloud computing needs, which mitigates the risk of any potential network disruptions or outages. Previously, the Pentagon faced legal challenges in 2019 from Amazon and Oracle after awarding Microsoft a $10 billion contract for its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud, or JEDI, but ultimately canceled the contract.

“The purpose of this contract is to provide the Department of Defense with enterprise-wide, globally available cloud services across all security domains and classification levels,” the Defense Department said in a statement. The contracts are expected to last until June 2028.