Unifying information in the cloud has obvious benefits for the Pentagon as the military moves to greater use of remote sensors, semiautonomous weapons and, ultimately, artificial intelligence. It is particularly crucial now that United States Cyber Command has been elevated to the equivalent of Central Command, which runs operations in the Middle East, or the Northern Command, which defends the continental United States. But some critics of the process argued that such a large contract should not be awarded to a single company, while proponents said using only one provider would eliminate glitches in military systems and streamline communications. The initial reaction on Friday from some lawmakers was positive, mostly because the long-delayed contract had finally been issued. Representative Jim Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat who has immersed himself in cyber issues, suggested the military was finally catching up with private industry. “Advanced general-purpose cloud is the industry norm, and it’s past time the Department of Defense had access to these capabilities,” said Mr. Langevin, the chairman of the Armed Services Subcommittee on Intelligence and Emerging Threats and Capabilities. “I look forward to continuing to use my position in Congress to increase access to next-generation technologies that support our war fighters.” But Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat of Virginia, said on Twitter that it was “important that we maintain a fair & competitive process” and that “for the President to use the power of his office to punish critics in the media would be a complete abuse of power.” Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and Google began battling for the JEDI contract more than a year ago. Google dropped out last October without submitting a formal bid, saying the military work conflicted with its corporate principles, which preclude the use of artificial intelligence in weaponry.
Microsoft has been awarded the $ 10bn Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure ( JEDI ) contract by the company , paid out over Amazon . The 10-year technology deal is set to overhaul the US military 's ageing cloud computing systems . Notably , Amazon was considered the front - runner for the scheme , having built the CIA 's cloud infrastructure . But desktop Donald Trump has recently become publicly hostile towards Amazon 's president Jeff Bezos , who also owns the Washington Post , prompting accusations of executive interference . Microsoft holds just 25 % of the cloud computing market , compared to Amazon 's 45 % , and has only recently acquired sufficient server capacity to handle JEDI 's data .