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Oracle Trying Hard To Make Sure Pentagon Knows Amazon Isn't the Only Cloud Around (theregister.co.uk)

Posted by msmash on from the never-gonna-give-you-up dept.

The Pentagon is no longer taking questions on its controversial cloud contract after making last-minute amendments to the deal -- and has received another complaint from disgruntled prospective bidder Oracle. The Register adds: The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract has a massive scope, covering different levels of secrecy and classification across all branches of the US military, and a massive budget, being worth a potential $10bn for a maximum of 10 years. Unsurprisingly, it has garnered similar levels of interest and complaint. Most criticism focused on the decision to hand the deal to a single vendor amid speculation that AWS would be a shoo-in. Would-be bidder -- and longtime AWS rival -- Oracle filed an official complaint with US government at the start of the month, arguing a single vendor would lock the Department of Defense into "legacy cloud" and went against its purported commitment to innovation and competition. It has now filed a supplementary protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which is not yet public but is likely to be an exchange of information and documents. The filing coincided with the Pentagon updating the terms of the JEDI deal, which it said came after engagement with industry after the previous request for proposals (RFP) was published.

12 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. Oracle has a cloud? by dark.nebulae · · Score: 2

    Nuf said.

    1. Re:Oracle has a cloud? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Informative

      Don't underestimate Oracle. If you make in inquiry, they will immediately start trying to identify the "decision maker", bypass you, and start calling managers and executives, and working their way up the chain until they find someone they can bribe with hookers and blackjack.

      It will likely work the same here. They will bypass DoD and go straight to congress, and they may not even need new hookers if they still have videotapes of the last time.

  2. No. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 5, Funny

    I would consider relying on Oracle to a threat to national security. Seriously, those bastards would gladly shut down vital server in the midst of a war over licensing fees.

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    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:No. by olsmeister · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is simple. All they need to do is let Trump know that AWS is owned by Bezos and POOF Oracle gets the contract.

    2. Re:No. by jenningsthecat · · Score: 4, Informative

      Glad you were modded up to +5, but I'm confused as to why people thought you were being funny. Oracle is totally unreliable and have shown themselves only too eager to screw over their customers at a moment's notice. And Darth Ellison's ego is so huge I'm sure he'd take delight 'altering the deal' with the Pentagon, then threatening to 'alter it further' if he thought he could extort more money from them.

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    3. Re: No. by youngone · · Score: 2

      People CHOSE to go with them years ago and are CHOOSING to migrate away...

      That's what we're doing. It will eventually cost Oracle something like $50 million per year from what I understand.
      They made the mistake of lying about license costs to the wrong executive, and he is not fucking happy.

  3. Longtime rivals??? by acoustix · · Score: 3, Informative

    No, they are not. Oracle is relatively new to cloud services. They fought it for years. AWS has been in cloud services much longer.

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    1. Re:Longtime rivals??? by PCM2 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Arguably, they aren't rivals at all. Let's not forget that at least one major investor is suing Oracle for allegedly falsifying demand for its cloud, including bullying customers into becoming cloud customers by threatening them with audits if they don't. Also, Oracle has been pressuring product managers into working "cloud" into their product names for years ... classic "fake it until you make it."

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    2. Re:Longtime rivals??? by omnichad · · Score: 2

      That's a model that worked for Adobe. At least today nobody worries what programs used to be opened by Macromedia or Aldus or whoever. But you have to actually try to move them under a common model.

  4. Amazon AWS has its problems, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The idea that Oracle is warning about single vendor lock-in and "legacy" anything is so thick with irony it is nauseating.

  5. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA by E-Rock · · Score: 2

    I just came here to laugh. Not even the Federal Government is dumb enough to use Oracle's cloud offering.

  6. Is Oracle pure evil? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

    Is Oracle pure evil? Does anyone have anything good to say about them?

    I know that I hate Oracle, after some bitter experiences, and everyone I know hates them, but I figure there must be someone somewhere that once had a positive experience. Anyone?