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Google Wins Injunction Against Agency Using Microsoft Cloud
jfruhlinger writes "A judge has granted an injunction stopping the US Department of the Interior from moving forward with the adoption of Microsoft's cloud services. The injunction was sought by Google, which of course has its own suite of cloud offerings. Google claimed that the Interior Dept. failed to consider other options as required."
Google doesn't give a shit about some measly $56 million, 5-year contact with DOI. That's chickenfeed to them, and they know that contract will eventually go to Microsoft anyway. They're sending a message to other potential government customers that if they play fast and loose with the bidding rules, the big dog will crap on their house.
They very well may have good reasons to go with MS and not Google, but they have to actually do the paperwork on said reasons. They are a government agency and have to show not only that they considered alternatives, but why they rejected them. In this case they did neither.
That's the problem.
The box of screws at your local Home Depot is targeted at some spec [say, attach block of wood 1 to block of wood 2, of various types, with certain minimum/maximum dimensions]
The majority of screws in that box meet or exceed that spec. But it is unlikely that all of them do, and it is unlikely that the few screws that don't meet the spec will be used in a situation where someones life is at stake.
Mil Spec may be lower, but all the screws in that box better meet that spec, because the whole system is designed to need that spec, and lives will directly depend on that screw meeting that spec, and if that screw fails, the military will sort through their records, find the QA person on the line that approved that screw, beat them to a pulp, then order twice as much of the same from that company.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!