Not so fast... Microsoft scored a huge win by snagging the Pentagon's $10B cloud computing contract (aka the "JEDI" deal) back in October. Cloud-competitor Amazon wasn't so pleased, so it appealed the decision in December. Now, a federal judge ordered a temporary block on JEDI in response to Amazon's lawsuit.
- JEDI: Over 10 years, Microsoft would modernize/build the Department of Defense's IT in the cloud (cloud: think a Google Doc stored on the internet, vs. an OG Word Doc stored on your laptop). Microsoft's servers would store/crunch government data.
- AWS: Amazon's cloud-computing giant makes up 12% of Amazon's revenue, but a whopping 63% of its profit. Amazon claims President Trump sabotaged its bid because he doesn't like The Washington Post (which Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns).
The DoD is America's largest employer... That means big data. And big data means big cloud cash — cash that's now on the line because of this temporary block. If the judge decides the DoD needs to reconsider its decision, Microsoft could lose the biggest cloud contract in US history.
Cloud is the new oil... Like oil back when everything in the economy needed to be shipped and delivered in trucks, today's economy runs on cloud computing — Companies are moving to cloud providers to store their data and manage their biz apps, instead of doing it themselves. Now cloud leaders like Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM are increasingly fighting over these big cloud deals.