Someone Is Waging A Cloak-And-Dagger Nation Of War To Undermine The Pentagon’S Huge Cloud Contract (Amzn: Goog)

From DefenseOne, August 20:

The battle for the Defense Department’s $10 billion nation of war cloud is getting a lot to a greater extent than interesting.

As some of the biggest U.S. engineering scientific discipline companies have got lined upwards to bid on the $10 billion contract to exercise a massive Pentagon cloud computing network, the behind-the-scenes nation of war to win it has turned ugly.

In the past times several months, a mortal investigative theatre has been shopping around to Washington reporters a 100-plus-page dossier raising the specter of corruption on the purpose of senior Defense Department as well as mortal companionship officials inwards the contest for the JEDI cloud contract. But at to the lowest degree some of the dossier’s conclusions exercise non stand upwards up to close scrutiny.

The dossier insinuates that a overstep aide to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis worked amongst Mattis as well as others to steer the contracting procedure to favor Amazon Web Services, or AWS — as well as enrich the aide. The aim of the dossier seems clear: to foreclose the bargain from going exclusively to AWS, the odds-on favorite inwards purpose because it operates the CIA’s classified commercial cloud. Far less clear, however, is who backed its creation and distribution.

It’s an unusually hardball shape of backroom maneuvering inwards the Blue Planet of lucrative merely rigidly controlled defence contracting. The theatre that prepared the dossier, RosettiStarr, shopped it to diverse Washington reporters before this year. Defense One was given a re-create inwards May. At the time, RossettiStar President as well as CEO Rich Rosetti declined to unwrap who funded the firm’s efforts.
Former defence officials told Defense One they received inquiries well-nigh the allegations from the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Reuters, as well as the Intercept. For months, the accusations went unaired past times tidings outlets, including Defense One as well as Nextgov, sis publications inwards Atlantic Media’s Government Executive Media Group.

But inwards the past times few weeks, some of the information inwards the dossier has surfaced inwards diverse publications. Now that the dossier’s targets have got been publicly accused, they are speaking out. In exclusive interviews amongst Defense One as well as Nextgov, they vehemently deny whatever wrongdoing as well as essay to plough the spotlight on their mysterious accusers.

A Contract as well as an Alleged Conspiracy
It’s difficult to overstate the significance of the Pentagon’s cloud contract. Known equally JEDI, for Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, it volition assist reshape American warfare past times absorbing, processing, as well as analyzing intelligence, sensor, as well as troop data, as well as past times facilitating communications through the Defense Department’s worldwide network. The winner of the contract, should they come across stringent safety as well as functioning standards, volition emerge equally a front-runner for to a greater extent than huge cloud jobs across the government.

In June, some of the same information included inwards the RosettiStarr dossier appeared inwards a study past times Capitol Forum, a mortal companionship that says it provides “investigative tidings & analysis on how policy affects marketplace competition” to its paying subscribers. And inwards the final ii weeks, like information appeared inwards articles inwards Reuters, Vanity Fair, as well as the Daily Caller.

All of the reports highlight Sally Donnelly, whose consulting theatre worked  for Amazon Web Services before she served equally senior advisor to the secretarial assistant of defense, essentially Mattis’ correct hand, during his outset yr on the job. They heighten questions well-nigh whether she received payments from AWS for steering the Defense Department to custom-tailor the JEDI requirements.

Donnelly, Pentagon officials, as well as AWS representatives deny all of it....

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