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Microsoft Wins $927 Million Pentagon Contract To Provide Technical Support (petri.com)
Microsoft has secured a massive $927m contract to provide technical support and consultation to the United States Department of Defense. This is the latest in a series of key deals that Microsoft has won with the US military. From a report: The contract comes after the software giant Microsoft secured a deal in February 2016 with the Department of Defense (DoD) to bring Windows 10 to all 4m of its employees within a 12-month timeframe. This was the largest enterprise deal for Microsoft in the company's history. In 2013, Microsoft signed a similar deal to bring Windows 8 to 75pc of all DoD employees.
Really? Cowboy Neal would have had shit fits about the Daily Mail, much less this ....
Can't we go back to hosing some poor fool's blog?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I'm surprised the DoD uses an OS loaded with spyware.
Doesn't this make it in Microsoft's interest to introduce obscure, random (but ultimately harmless) annoyances into the DoD version of Win10 so they will maintain their tech support contract?
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
in soviet America, people privacy is a concern! /SARCASM
Maybe now when Trump enters the nuclear launch code the warheads will simply BSOD.
They'll just push it out over the network and kill productivity for months. lol
you all got used so they could perfect telemetry for the pentagon to make sure a snowden never happens
what a sick country
North Korea has their own state sponsored OS. Yeah it mostly sucks, but that's missing the point : They own it. They can change it.
And I doubt they spend a billion dollars on geek squads and genius bars to support it. And there aren't 400 million people writing malware for their platform.
...you know what's cool? A billion dollar Pentagon contract!
to handle support for that now? MS is NOT going to do this, but WILL outsource. Let us not try to kid anybody, not in the Trump universe, where shit rolls fast and truth goes into the crapper!
Sadly there are no real alternatives to Windows. OSX (if you're willing to pay the Apple tax) is terrible in a managed environment, and so is Linux. AD with Office+Exchange is quite unbeatable in terms of convenience. You can cobble together something in OSX/Linux just like you can use an Arduino as a PLC to run a manufacturing plant, but its going to be brittle.
I hope someone is keeping track of my much money is spend on getting people running Windows 10 compared to other OSes.
Seriously. Close to a billion dollars in tech support so they can run an enterprise with a proposed budget of 580 billion dollars. Anyone know how that scales in comparison to what private companies spend on IT support?
...you know what's cool? A billion dollar Pentagon contract!
Being that it is a Pentagon contract, it will end up costing 10 billion.
"Do you want some fries and an F-35 with that . . . ?"
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I am sure the DoD will demand all that BS be removed (or at least routed to internal collection).
Windows 10 - the best surveillance OS money can buy.
>perfect
We're talking about Microsoft here...
--
BMO
Given the amount of telemetry within Microsoft OS these days, I see this as more of an outsourcing move for that whole 'cause-terrorists-think-of-the-children requirement to help address negative publicity.
See, when the NSA spys on its own citizens and employees, it's viewed as evil and unconstitutional.
But when Microsoft does it, it's viewed as sales and marketing.
Gotta love how that shit works.
When Krischev predicted America would sell the Soviets the rope they would hang us with, he was far too pessemistic.
We've sold ourselves the rope we'll hang ourselves with. All Russia had to do was tweak our information streams a little. The rest just required our own, very predictable, stupidity.
Microsoft with a DoD contract. What could possibly go wrong.
That's a lot of money to tell someone "Please turn if off and back on again and we'll see if that fixes the problem."
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
... and then have people pay you lots of money to troubleshoot their issues.
Chickens, meet the fox.
nt
Thank you for calling Microsoft Advanced Combat Systems technical support
Please press 1 if you are in a combat situation other wise please hold for the next technician... ...hold music...
beep
Please in put your mission number...
beep boop beep booop beeep boop beep boop beep beeep boop boop beep boop beep
Mission verification complete we will now transfer you to a support technician...
Thank you for calling Microsoft Advanced Combat Systems technical support, may name is nahmeed how may I be helping you?
Look buddy my radar is froze up and I'm dodging a MIG 35 at the moment how about you fix this thing so I can take this sucker out.
I'm sorry to hear about that sir what Microsoft Advanced Combat System system are you calling about? ... its the radar in the f-35.
The radar!!
I understand sir but we have a lot of radar systems do you know the model number?
No!
Ok very good sir I can look that up. please hold ... ...more hold music...
Sir you still there ??
Yes I am I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to shake this MIG.
Thats fine sir, can you tell me what firmware revision of the radar you are using?
What?? I don't know all I know is that its stuck with the same blips thats been on the screen for the last 15 minutes and nothing has changed. Look just log in and fix it.
I would be happy to be helping you sir. Let me know when you have landed the plane and come to a full stop and all weapon systems are in their safe position.
Are you kidding me?? I can't land this plane right now this MIG will make mince meat of me once I stop evasive maneuvers!
Ah I see sir unfortunately I can not help you until the planes is at a full stop and all weapons are safe.
Is there any thing else I can be doing for you?
Yeah how about you.... BOOM*&@!*shzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzsssssssssssss
Sir hello are you there?
Hello sir??
Thank you for calling Microsoft Advanced Combat Systems technical support I hope you found this session helpful please reply to the survey at the end of this call. have a good day
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Triggered by faulty Microsoft software.
Approximately a billion dollars divided by 4 million seats is around $250 per seat. I guess this is the best option rather than the DoD investing in a technology group to package and maintain their own Linux distribution? A Linux distribution which they could completely customize to suit their needs with attention given especially to security hardening and auditing. Plus, it would bring the knowledge and skill set for a domain that only grows in importance, numbers, and complexity each year. We are barraged with reports of unauthorized computer access to poorly maintained government systems. Seems like this is an opportunity the government keeps missing.
A billion bucks, that's enough to pay salaries for 5,000 senior people (or 8,500 H1Bs).
We're gonna be hacked in no time!
See Russian OS
Last I checked all of Microsoft's support was done in India...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Sputnik News reporting on the latest WikiLeaks dump several minutes before WikiLeaks posts its own updates.
Looks legit, guys.
Your DoD computer have virus.
Close to a billion dollars in tech support so they can run an enterprise with a proposed budget of 580 billion dollars
You are not comparing equal time spans. Microsoft is NOT getting a billion dollars per year. It's a billion dollar total across the duration of the contract. That could be a decade or more. The $580B number is per year for the Defense Department budget.
Per TFA: "Microsoft has been awarded a non-competitive, firm-fixed price, single award, indefinite-delivery / indefinite-quantity contract for Microsoft Enterprise Technical Support Services,” the release stated on Tuesday. “The total cumulative value of the contract is $927,000,000.”
Yes hello General, this is Jim from Microsft. Your machine is reporting that it does not have a valid license. Which credit card would you like to use to resolve this problem?
... and then have people pay you lots of money to troubleshoot their issues.
There is an old saying in consulting that if you can't be a part of the solution then there is a lot of money to be made in prolonging the problem.
$927,000,000.00 for a paper clip.
Those "Microsoft Support Calls" are going to ramp up pretty quickly
I'm a programmer and I don't feel comfortable having any of the known tech companies be responsible for anything that is important. If you have technical experience with Microsoft technology and software you realize what a massive hole exists for quality software and tech support.
I would encourage a tech savvy entrepreneur to capitalize on the apparent void in quality tech support and set up a plan to take this contract over next time it comes up. Shouldn't be hard. Good business plan, develop employee training and retention program, land a few smaller contracts, prepare for the big one.
Hello venture capitalism.
Just waiting for Trump to tweet.... "Tech support costs are out of control. More that $2 billion. Cancel order!"
yes, we all know snowden's typically buy snuggies in fall.
Would you like to play a game?
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
http://arstechnica.com/informa...
Highlights:
- Indicates it's a 5-year contract
- Requires access rights to Microsoft's proprietary (closed-source) code
- Direct support from Microsoft's internal employees—not from outsourced contractors
With virtually every single company out there going head over heels for anything cloud related, one of the things MS brings to the table is a decent ironclad cloud offering. Server backups? DPM to an array, then to Azure. Desktops? DPM as well. AV? Endpoint Manager handles that fairly well.
Then, there is Windows 10 LTSB, and that can be something useful, as it will not be sprouting ads or new features come every 6-12 months.
Now, is this good or bad? Who is to day. However, MS seems to be able to step into markets and make money faster than Apple these days, not to mention offering some actual innovations that are not just RDF hype.
Correction, "who is to say" is what was meant. Is MS perfect? No. However, they have gone from dinosaur to a company which moves and evolves fast. The fact that they are able to step in and handle the DoD's needs is a good example. I'm no MS fan, but I do give them credit for being able to do what needs done.
I'll give it a year, then they'll dump the steaming pile of shit called Windows for a real solution.
...in Windows 10 that remain to this day...and in 8.1 and 7.
They used to save money (e.g., by offloading product testing off (to the unfortunate group called "Insiders.") Now they're getting paid nearly One Billion Dollars because their product is so buggy and insecure.
What a great scam the plutocrats at the top of Microsoft have created. Now, they've "MADOFF" with our tax money by providing services to their incomplete product to the U.S. Government.
This is why we, mere citizens, stand to lose Medicare under Trump: To pay for these kinds of schemes, to take taxpayers $$$ and redistribute them to corporations who have created the very problems they'll be paid to solve.
Your tax money at work.
Microsoft's director of public affairs has quite the history.
His associates Talat Othman and Rabia Chaudry can be linked to Yaqub Mirza and Wajahat Ali.
So the Pentagon's IT is likely to be managed by people that the feds raided after 9/11 for supporting bin Laden. Someone approved this. I wonder how much they got paid, or if they did it for free to show how progressive they are.
they should name it "shut up and reboot".
Clinton / Saudi Arabia ..
See how that works
Except I have evidence
And I notice slashdot is suddenly allowing fake news -1 trolls like u to have a free reign. Clintons campaign was 20% funded by Saudi, which trains ISIS. Get it?
for loading spyware ( w10 ) on all those computers
Isn't Windows great?! For Microsoft at least, it's the gift that keep$ on giving. Why the "Microsoft everywhere" mindset is still so widely held, I'll never know. But then I guess that's what most of the IT twerps and their managers know. Doesn't surprise me that H1B's eventually replace them (obviously doesn't apply in this particular case), but then I guess they'll be MS-certified as well...I keep hoping Linux/BSD/Cloud APIs/ReactOS will carve away at MS's lock. No hope for Apple.
This is probably some crazy plot to bsod the Trump administration and prevent his executive orders.
A billion dollars for supporting a product that should work to begin with. Nothing wrong with fucking the taxpayers up the ass, right?
(sarcasm)
I think it is all about scale and management at that level.
I have no doubt moving a small to medium sized organization from MS to something else is possible.
However when you are talking about 4M deployments across a diverse usergroup you would have to think really hard about that decision.
I'm pretty sure the corporate version is likely very configurable particularly when its a 1 Billion dollar contract with the DoD to not include any telemetry they don't see fit.
For the individual user sure, MS is going to do whatever MS is going to do.
I've seen over the years more configurable options for folks to lock down the MS environments within the corporate setting. I've seen some aspects so locked down that they more less break certain features in the name of security or ease of support or whatever.
On one hand, we have the F-35, which would have to increase its reliability by about 300% just to be called a "trailer queen". Software problems they're admitting include, "shortfalls in electronic warfare, electronic attack, shortfalls in the performance of distributed aperture system and other issues that are classifiedâ. Who knows how bad the situation really is.
And now we're going to have Microsoft provide tech support for that (occasionally) flying bucket of pure fail?
The jokes just write themselves. This is going to be a three ring, slapstick, dollar-sucking shitshow for the ages.
And we're going to have a ringside seat.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
In the past, I would have said the same thing. However, when I look at the market, I wonder, what would be the real solution that someone else can offer. The only company that even comes close to having the cloud data centers, a decent client OS, application support, and some sort of framework is Apple... and Apple appears to not give a rat's ass about anything enterprise anymore.
The ironic thing... I could see Apple nailing this contract if they had wanted to. It might have taken throwing up some FedRAMP/FISMA compliant OpenStack support for computing, but all the other puzzle pieces are in place.
Red Hat?
Now, call centers in India will be hearing from people with top secret information, and connecting to their computers, until the Chinese and Russians hack the accounts, then the Pentagon will be leaking data to them.
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
Let's get your login linked to your microsoft account.
With how much of a spyware/malware platform Windows is, our military will have precisely ZERO security of their computing platforms. May as well just mirror all the drives to servers in enemy countries.
the next version of Windows.
What the colonel emailed everyone about. You know the new Microsoft Windows 2010. Nice that we all get a special version of Windows! Wonder if the internet will magically become more usable??
Hey, don't blame Americans for this one; you're being hypocritical. It's not only Americans who use Windows; the vast majority of computer users across the world use Windows. You all have yourselves to blame. You could all decide to stop using Windows, leaving only Americans to suffer with it, and switch yourselves to Linux, but you don't; except for a few isolated places like Munich, you all still use Windows and give your money to MS.
If you're a non-American (person, business, or government) and don't like an American company spying on you, it's pretty pathetic for you to complain when you continue to willingly use the American OS that does this.
Watch as Microsoft outsources this to China.
But mostly, Win10 is uglification. Or putting it differently, if Windows were an Indiana Jones movie, then Windows 7 would star Harrison Ford; Windows 10 would star Legos.
It's a sad day for defense. Unfortunately, the people who control the budgets have no clue when it comes to reliability, and mission readiness.
Just another day in Paradise
It probably includes a project for creating a voice-activated drone that is managed by Cortana.
Here is a radical idea. Just use Linux and not have to spend a dime? Most super computers use it but our DoD is using Windows? That makes sense. Doesn't matter if they have the source code or not. Matter of fact, Windows 10 is already open source, so I don't see how that means anything. Still crappy. More people actually look at the source code in the Linux community than Windows users do, even though there's a rumor that there's more Windows source code on Github. If there is a big, it'll take them forever to find it. It happens every now and then in Linux, but then you actually find out that someone found a bug in a Linux kernel, but got ignored and then you end up with Dirty Cow, which isn't that bad compared to everything else that Windows has or has had in the past. If there is a second Cold War and it is predominantly cyber attacks, we are screwed relying on Windows. Call it a cliche, but Linux and Ham radio will always win.
..... Red Hat or SuSE would have come up with something a lot more secure.