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(Bloomberg) – Google Alphabet Inc. has decided not to compete for the Pentagon cloud computing contract worth up to $ 10 billion, saying the project may conflict with company values.
The project, known as the Joint Defense Infrastructure Cloud (JEDI), involves the transition of huge amounts of data from the Department of Defense to a commercially operated cloud system. Companies must submit bids for the contract, which could last 10 years, on October 12.
Google's announcement on Monday was made just months after the company decided not to renew its contract with the Pentagon's artificial intelligence program, after many protests from the Internet giant's employees who wanted to work with the army. The company then published a set of principles to evaluate the type of artificial intelligence projects it would pursue.
"We are not bidding for the JEDI contract because, first, we could not ensure that it would be consistent with our AI principles," said a Google spokesman in a statement. "Then we determined that some parts of the contract were out of reach with the certifications of our current government."
The spokesman added that Google "is striving to support the US government with our cloud in many ways".
Google is ahead of other technology companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in obtaining government cloud security permissions based on the sensitivity of the data that a service hosts.
The JEDI contract has garnered widespread interest among tech companies struggling to catch up with Amazon in the federal government's booming cloud services market. The final project requirements were released in July after a multi-month lobbying campaign in Washington led by technology companies such as Microsoft, International Business Machines Corp. and Oracle Corp., who opposed the Pentagon project of choosing a single winner for the project instead of separating the contract between multiple providers.
"If the JEDI contract had been open to several vendors, we would have presented a compelling solution for some parts," said Google spokesman. "Google Cloud believes that a multi-cloud approach is in the interest of government agencies because it allows them to choose the right cloud for the right workload."
In a report to Congress, the Defense Department said that awarding multiple contracts under the current Acquisitions Act would be a slow process "that could prevent the DoD from quickly providing new capabilities and improving the Combatant efficiency that cloud computing at the enterprise level can allow. "
The ministry also said it plans to "keep contracts with many cloud providers to access specialized features not available in the cloud JEDI contract."
(Updates with an additional comment from Google in the fifth paragraph.)
–With the help of Ben Brody.
To contact the reporter about this story: Naomi Nix in Washington at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sara Forden at [email protected], Larry Liebert, Molly Schuetz
For more articles like this, go to bloomberg.com
© 2018 Bloomberg L.P.
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