The Contracting Education Academy

Contracting Academy Logo
You are here: Home / Archives for national security

By

Amazon will ask judge to halt work on DoD’s JEDI contract

With less than a month to go before the Pentagon and Microsoft get to work on building the military’s new Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud, Amazon Web Services said Monday that it would ask a court to temporarily block any meaningful work under the controversial contract.

AWS gave notice of its plans as part of a status update its attorneys and the Justice Department filed jointly with the Court of Federal Claims. As part of the company’s bid protest lawsuit, its lawyers have previously said they were considering asking the court for a preliminary injunction, but the latest filing is the first concrete indication of their plans.

DoD has already said it intends to issue Microsoft the first “substantive” task order to begin building the unclassified portions of JEDI by Feb. 11.  Because AWS wants to stop the work before then, and because DoD considers the project urgent to national security, lawyers for all three parties have already agreed on an expedited schedule for the court to consider either a preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order.

Judge Patricia E. Campbell-Smith would still need to agree to that schedule, but under the proposal, AWS plans to file its formal request to block work on JEDI by Jan. 24. DoD and Amazon would then have a little more than a week to respond with their filings asking the judge to deny it, and the court would issue a final ruling by Feb. 11, the day DoD plans to issue the first task order.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2020/01/amazon-will-ask-judge-to-halt-work-on-dods-jedi-contract/

By

After 2 years, JEDI is finally underway

The second year of competition for the Pentagon’s controversial cloud contract was as dramatic as the first.

The Pentagon’s high-profile Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud contract is right back where it was one year ago: tied up in litigation.

The circumstances have changed in the past calendar year, with Microsoft winning JEDI in October and former favorite to win the contract, Amazon Web Services, protesting the decision in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

At best, the Defense Department and Microsoft cannot begin work until at least mid-February, putting the Pentagon more than a year behind its initial schedule for JEDI. An internal JEDI strategy document released in November 2017 sought a JEDI award in fourth quarter of 2018 and migrations to the cloud platform by the beginning of 2019.

And yet, what unfolded in 2019 was high drama in the federal contracting world over an improbably high-profile government contract.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2019/12/after-two-years-jedi-finally-underway/162005/

By

A new rule could allow Commerce secretary to ban certain tech buys

A proposed rule will allow a government department’s secretary to block the purchase of foreign technology that pose an “undue” risk to the U.S. information and communications infrastructure.

The rule, published by the Department of Commerce Nov. 26, establishes procedures for Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to “identify, assess, and address” information and communication technology (ICT) transactions he deems risky to national security.

The proposed rule stems from an executive order President Donald Trump signed on May 15, which gave the secretary the authority to prohibit or mitigate transactions that involve ICT technology developed or supplied by entities located in adversarial nations.

Transactions will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and the secretary will take a “fact-specific approach” to evaluation, according to the Commerce Department announcement.

Specifically, transactions will be blocked or mitigated if they are found to have an “an undue risk of sabotage or subversion ICTS in the United States; an undue risk of catastrophic effects on the security and resiliency of critical infrastructure or the digital economy in the United States; or an unacceptable risk to national security or to the security and safety of U.S. persons.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fifthdomain.com/civilian/2019/11/26/a-new-rule-could-allow-one-department-secretary-to-ban-certain-tech-buys/

By

The Pentagon’s climate problem

The defense acquisition community faces a climate problem — a political climate of suspicion is impeding the Pentagon’s efforts to take advantage of private industry expertise to deliver important capabilities to America’s warfighters.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper called out the delegitimizing and debilitating nature of the climate of suspicion when, during his confirmation hearing, he observed: “I think the presumption is, for some reason, anybody who comes from the business or the corporate world is corrupt.” This phenomenon contributes to unnecessary delays to critical contract awards, discourages recruitment of leaders with industry experience, and deters strategic collaboration with industry partners.

Government faces a growing need for access to technologies at the frontier of innovation, requiring greater reliance on engagement with private sector innovators to deliver these tools. Although legitimate concerns about conflicts of interest should always receive fair hearing, when taken to extremes, they become detrimental to sound national security policy.

The controversy over the awarding of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, contract illustrates how the current climate of suspicion can undermine national defense programs. The JEDI cloud will act as a centralized cloud computing service for all of the Defense Department’s unclassified, classified and top-secret information. The contract will offer its eventual awardee revenue of up to $10 billion over 10 years. With such a lucrative deal up for grabs, the award process has become contentious, including allegations of bias in the award decision. Most prominently, Oracle Corp. filed a lawsuit against the department claiming that conflicts of interest by recently hired Pentagon procurement personnel previously employed by Amazon Web Services — the widely speculated favorite to win the JEDI contract award — prejudicially affected the procurement.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2019/11/5/the-pentagons-climate-problem

By

How 5 federal agencies fostered innovation

New report showcases initiatives including a procurement lab and virtual internship program. 
In “Risk and Reward: A Framework for Federal Innovation,” the Partnership for Public Service, in collaboration with Slalom Consulting, investigated innovative federal organizations and what made them successful.

Change can be difficult in the federal government, but some agencies are making headway on fostering innovation in the workplace and could serve as a model for others, according to a new report.

The nonprofit Partnership for Public Service and Slalom Consulting, a firm that focuses on technology and business transformation, released a report on federal innovation at their first-ever federal innovation summit on Friday. They conducted interviews across 16 agencies and analyzed federal employee survey data to identify 10 characteristics that best foster innovation. Their report profiled five agencies that have used many of the characteristics to implement successful innovation initiatives.

“While innovative ideas are often stifled by a lack of leadership support, bureaucratic barriers and the absence of incentives and resources, there are many bright spots across the federal landscape,” the report stated. “There are agencies rising to the challenge — creating environments where new ideas are encouraged and are flourishing in areas dealing with national security, global development, health care, federal procurement and space exploration, among others.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2019/11/how-five-federal-agencies-fostered-innovation/161036/

Contracting Academy Logo
75 Fifth Street, NW, Suite 300
Atlanta, GA 30308
info@ContractingAcademy.gatech.edu
Phone: 404-894-6109
Fax: 404-410-6885

RSS Twitter