cloud computing | The Contracting Education Academy

May 29, 2020 By cs

The White House is rewriting contracting language to clarify security liability

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) plans to standardize language in all government contracts with cloud vendors that would update liability terms regarding security, according to the official in charge of leading federal agencies’ move to the shared-responsibility ecosystems.

**Technology vendors precluding liability in government contracts has long been an issue, and now COVID-19 has sped up some agencies’ cloud migration and amplified calls for cybersecurity assurances.**

“I think there is a need to update our [service level agreements] with the cloud providers and we’re actively working on that within [the General Services Administration],” Thomas Santucci, the director of the Data Center and Cloud Optimization Infrastructure Program Management Office at GSA, said.

Santucci provided a status report on the government’s efforts to improve efficiency and lower costs by moving to the cloud during a virtual conference the Digital Government Institute hosted today.

“OMB has just stood up a [program management office] to work on a cloud SLA template for the federal government to be attached to every contract,” Santucci said when asked about the liability issue and whether cloud service providers or government customers should be held responsible for security.

Security was one of the topics mentioned in establishing the new contract templates, he said.

Keep reading thi9s article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/05/white-house-rewriting-contracting-language-clarify-security-liability/165549/

The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech has established a webpage where all contract-related developments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) are summarized. Find the page at: https://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/coronavirus-information-for-contracting-officers-and-contractors/

May 28, 2020 By cs

What Google’s new contract reveals about the Pentagon’s evolving clouds

For one thing, it disproves fears that the massive JEDI contract meant one company would get all the work.

Tools and a console built with Google’s Anthos application management platform will allow the Defense Innovation Unit to manage apps on either of the cloud services heavily used by the Pentagon.

Google will build security-and app-management tools for the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), deepening the Silicon Valley giant’s military ties and illuminating the challenges facing the Defense Department’s drive to a multi-cloud environment.

Tools and a console built with the company’s Anthos application management platform will allow DIU to manage apps on either of the cloud services heavily used by the Pentagon: Microsoft Azure, which won the hotly contested JEDI cloud contract, and Amazon Web Services, or AWS, heavily used by DoD researchers, from a Google Cloud console.

Mike Daniels, vice president of government sales for Google Cloud services, said the company’s approach to security both complements and differs from those of Microsoft and AWS. Traditional “castle-and-moat” network security uses firewalls and virtual private networks to keep attackers on the other side of some sort of digital barrier. The higher security certification, the deeper and wider that moat. It works well enough in a single-cloud environment but less well in one with applications running in multiple clouds. It can also present problems when you’re dealing with an “extended workforce”: a bunch of people working from home or different locations.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2020/05/what-googles-new-contract-reveals-about-pentagons-evolving-clouds/165524/

May 11, 2020 By cs

Amazon files another protest over JEDI contract

Amazon Web Services filed an agency protest with the Defense Department last week seeking what the company said was clarification over ambiguous pricing requirements in the amended JEDI solicitation.

The move comes as AWS’ case in federal court is on hold after a judge ordered the Defense Department to take corrective action to fix parts of the contract the Pentagon agreed were flawed when it made the award to Microsoft in last October.

In a statement regarding the protest, which is confidential, an AWS spokesperson told Nextgov the company took action only after the Defense Department refused to answer questions over multiple correspondences.

“AWS is committed to ensuring it receives a fair and objective review on an award decision that the Court found to be flawed. AWS repeatedly sought clarity from the DoD around ambiguous aspects of the amended solicitation and the DoD refused to answer our questions,” an AWS spokesperson said. “We simply want to ensure a common understanding of the DoD’s requirements and eliminate ambiguity that could impact a fair evaluation.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/05/amazon-files-another-protest-over-jedi-contract/165243/

April 23, 2020 By cs

Judge grants Pentagon’s request for corrective action on JEDI cloud contract

Federal Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith has granted the Defense Department’s March request for a 120-day stay to take corrective action on parts of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract, which it awarded to Microsoft in October.

Amazon Web Services, which protested the award, had asked the judge in previous motions to force the Pentagon to take more expansive correction action, accusing the government of attempting to “gerrymander” revisions to the procurement.

In the order, which is under seal, Campbell-Smith grants the Defense Department’s motion for remand so that “it may reconsider the aspects of the procurement challenged in this protest action,” though the 120-day remand could be lengthened or shortened upon motion and subsequent judge’s decision.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/04/judge-grants-pentagons-request-corrective-action-jedi-cloud-contract/164721/

April 22, 2020 By cs

Pentagon IG review finds DoD improperly disclosed JEDI information to AWS

The Defense Department improperly disclosed sensitive information about its JEDI Cloud contract decision to Amazon after the company lost out on the multibillion dollar award, according to a review of the hotly-contested procurement by the Pentagon’s inspector general.

**Click on image above to download DoD IG’s report.**

The findings — which also indicate DoD failed to redact Microsoft’s proprietary information in its disclosures to AWS — are part of a sweeping 313-page report the DoD IG released last week.

Overall, the review found that while two DoD officials committed ethical missteps as part of the contracting process, they likely did not have an impact on the department’s final decisions. The OIG also said the department’s acquisition processes for JEDI — including the decision to award the contract to a single vendor — were “reasonable” and “consistent with applicable law.”

On another key question: whether the White House inappropriately interfered with the procurement, OIG officials said they could not come to any definitive conclusions, because the Trump administration had asserted a “presidential communications privilege.” In response, Pentagon lawyers instructed Defense officials not to talk with the IG about any discussions they may have had with the White House about JEDI.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2020/04/pentagon-ig-review-finds-dod-improperly-disclosed-jedi-information-to-aws/

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) plans to standardize language in all government contracts with cloud vendors that would update liability terms regarding security, according to the official in charge of leading federal agencies’ move to the shared-responsibility ecosystems.

For one thing, it disproves fears that the massive JEDI contract meant one company would get all the work.

Amazon Web Services filed an agency protest with the Defense Department last week seeking what the company said was clarification over ambiguous pricing requirements in the amended JEDI solicitation.

Federal Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith has granted the Defense Department’s March request for a 120-day stay to take corrective action on parts of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract, which it awarded to Microsoft in October.

The Defense Department improperly disclosed sensitive information about its JEDI Cloud contract decision to Amazon after the company lost out on the multibillion dollar award, according to a review of the hotly-contested procurement by the Pentagon’s inspector general.

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