Amazon | The Contracting Education Academy

May 6, 2019 By AMK

Despite the ‘potential ethical violations,’ JEDI contract moves forward

In the wake of an ethics investigation, Pentagon officials have selected two cloud service providers to move forward as potential candidates in the Department of Defense’s $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative cloud services contract.

The selection of those providers, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, came after an Oracle lawsuit challenging the legality of the JEDI contract process was put on hold in February to allow DoD to investigate previously unknown information about conflicts of interest.

“The department’s investigation has determined that there is no adverse impact on the integrity of the acquisition process,” DoD spokesperson Elissa Smith in a statement.

“However, the investigation also uncovered potential ethical violations, which have been further referred to DoD [inspector general]. There are two different components of the investigation. First, DoD investigated potential conflicts of interest as they relate to the acquisition process. This portion of the investigation determined that there are no conflicts of interest that affected the integrity of the acquisition process. However, there may be potential ethical violations, which have been referred to DoD IG for further investigation.”

Keep reading article at: https://www.federaltimes.com/acquisition/2019/04/11/despite-the-potential-ethical-violations-jedi-moves-forward/

May 2, 2019 By AMK

CIA considering cloud contract worth ‘tens of billions’

After six years in a classified commercial cloud built by Amazon Web Services, the CIA wants more commercial cloud capabilities from potentially multiple companies.

The agency is in the early stages of planning a contract for commercial cloud computing services that will be worth “tens of billions” of dollars, according to contracting documents presented to select tech companies by the CIA in late March and obtained by Nextgov.

Dubbed the Commercial Cloud Enterprise, or C2E, the two-phase initiative will “expand and enhance” the commercial cloud capabilities it first contracted for with Amazon Web Services in 2013.

That contract, called C2S and valued at up to $600 million over 10 years, provided commercial cloud capabilities such as data storage, computing and analytics to the CIA and its 16 sister agencies within the intelligence community.

“Since that time, cloud computing has proven transformational for the IC–increasing the speed at which new applications can be developed to support mission and improving the functionality and security of those applications,” the CIA contracting documents state.

Whereas C2S has been managed by a single company, the CIA expects to “acquire foundational cloud services” from multiple vendors in phase one of C2E, which is good news for companies like IBM, Microsoft, Google and others expected to compete for the contract.

Keep reading article at: https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2019/04/cia-considering-cloud-contract-worth-tens-billions/156222

March 1, 2019 By AMK

Pentagon investigating whether Amazon employee tilted JEDI contract

The Defense Department will review whether a former employee—who now works at Amazon Web Services—improperly impacted the integrity of its $10 billion JEDI cloud contract.

The conflict of interest investigation comes approximately one month before the Pentagon was set to award the $10 billion contract—to host, analyze and process swaths of classified and sensitive military data—to one of four competing companies: AWS, Microsoft, IBM or Oracle.

In a partially redacted court filing released Friday in Oracle’s suit against the Defense Department, government lawyers explained their motion to stay—or delay—the case stemmed from “new information” regarding “possible conflicts of interest involving former DoD employee, Deap Ubhi.”

Ubhi worked in the Pentagon’s Defense Digital Service for almost two years in between jobs at Amazon Web Services.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2019/02/pentagon-investigating-whether-amazon-employee-tilted-jedi-contract/155118/

October 18, 2018 By AMK

Efforts to speed procurement of commercial off-the-shelf items influenced by ‘The Amazon Effect’

Amazon looms large over the world’s commerce, drawing a stark contrast to old ways of shopping, and an even starker contrast to the way government agencies buy things. In fact, there’s even a term for it: The Amazon Effect.

So, when Section 846 of 2018 National Defense Authorization Act was enacted, providing for the Pentagon and other federal government agencies to buy directly from e-marketplaces, it was immediately dubbed the “Amazon Bill,” and not just because of the Amazon Effect.

Introduced by Congressman Mac Thornberry, the bill was crafted to help speed the procurement process for commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products through e-commerce portals. The General Services Administration (GSA), in partnership with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is currently working on the strategy and plan to properly implement and execute this legislation.

Based on input from the providers of commercial e-commerce portals and e-procurement solutions, the GSA and OMB team has developed the initial plan (Phase I) and is now working on the market research and industry consultation needed to develop the program’s implementation guidance (Phase II). This is not a simple task, as the team must review and consider existing processes and all the requirements of public procurement — buying off negotiated contracts from vetted suppliers who have invested heavily in meeting government requirements, and giving fair treatment to small, disadvantaged, minority women-owned and veteran-owned companies. The target is to have things completed by 2020.

However, the gap between expectations of selection, ease of use and speed that Amazon has created among consumers, and the reality of what is actually possible in the federal government continues to crop up as we move into the next phase of this process, the proof of concept phase.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.publicspendforum.net/blogs/andrew-malay/2018/10/09/future-federal-government-procurement-ecommerce

April 11, 2018 By AMK

Could the online marketplace be a catalyst for procurement transformation?

The rest of the world has been buying online for a long time now, and with Congressional permission, our government agencies will finally get to try it out.

A section included in the annual defense authorization bill allows the Pentagon and other government agencies to buy directly from online marketplaces such as Amazon, Grainger and Office Depot as part of a pilot program.

Section 846 could be the catalyst for far-reaching change, leading to new procurement business processes and innovative procurement technology. If the federal government wants to make this initiative as successful as possible, there are a few key things they need to consider.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/ideas/2018/03/could-online-marketplace-be-catalyst-procurement-transformation/146807/

In the wake of an ethics investigation, Pentagon officials have selected two cloud service providers to move forward as potential candidates in the Department of Defense’s $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative cloud services contract.

After six years in a classified commercial cloud built by Amazon Web Services, the CIA wants more commercial cloud capabilities from potentially multiple companies.

The Defense Department will review whether a former employee—who now works at Amazon Web Services—improperly impacted the integrity of its $10 billion JEDI cloud contract.

Amazon looms large over the world’s commerce, drawing a stark contrast to old ways of shopping, and an even starker contrast to the way government agencies buy things. In fact, there’s even a term for it: The Amazon Effect.

The rest of the world has been buying online for a long time now, and with Congressional permission, our government agencies will finally get to try it out.

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