Amazon cloud CEO Andy Jassy says the company feels strongly that Microsoft's $10 billion JEDI cloud win 'was not adjudicated fairly' because of political interference (AMZN)
- On Wednesday at the Amazon Web Services re:Invent conference, AWS CEO Andy Jassy said the company feels "pretty strongly" that the decision to award the $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract to Microsoft was "not adjudicated fairly."
- Jassy said that there was "significant political interference," as President Donald Trump has a feud with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
- Last month, AWS filed an official challenge to the Microsoft's JEDI award.
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Following Amazon's legal challenge of the government's handling of a $10 billion cloud contract, Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy tried to make his case in the court of public opinion on Wednesday.
In a meeting with reporters, Jassy argued that the Pentagon's decision to award that contract to Microsoft was not fairly made and was tainted by "significant political interference."
"What I would say is that I think it's fairly obvious that we feel pretty strongly that it was not adjudicated fairly," Jassy told reporters at a press event at AWS re:Invent, Amazon's cloud mega-conference in Las Vegas. "If you do a truly objective detailed apples-to-apples comparison of the platforms, you don't end up in a spot where that decision was made."
In October, Amazon was on the losing end of a major upset when it lost a crucial $10 billion Pentagon contract to Microsoft. Amazon Web Services was considered the frontrunner of the bid for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract.
After the Department of Defense announced that Microsoft had won, AWS filed an official challenge in November over claims of "unmistakable bias." During the bid for JEDI, President Donald Trump, who has an open feud with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post, which Bezos owns, reportedly said that he would look into the bidding process for the contract.
"We have a sitting president who is willing to share openly his disdain for a company and the leader of that company," Jassy said. "It makes it really difficult for government agencies including the DoD to make an objective decision without a fear of reprisal."
The line is almost identical to what Jassy said in an all-hands meeting with Amazon employees last month, according to a recording obtained by Business Insider.
In his comments on Wednesday, Jassy added an appeal to patriotism and national security.
"We're talking about the national security of our country and modernizing their technology platforms and the foundation on which all those applications are going to be used to protect our country," Jassy said. "You have to make sure these decisions are made truly objectively."
Previously, Jassy reportedly told employees that AWS is two years ahead of Microsoft, and he made these claims again on Wednesday.
"Most of our customers tell us that we're a couple years ahead mostly in regards to functionality and maturity," Jassy said.
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SEE ALSO: https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-lost-jedi-cloud-contract-microsoft-2019-10