Lessons Emerging from the JEDI Cloud: Immediate Steps and the Future of Next-Generation IT

As the Pentagon wraps up the bidding process for its transition to cloud computing, the future of defense IT procurement remains uncertain. Though the “move to the cloud” is an important step for the military’s modernization, with a 10-year, $10 billion contract, the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) is likely to have a profound impact on government procurement of other next-generation technologies.

On September 14, with sponsorship from Oracle and Microsoft, Hudson Institute’s Task Force on Federal IT Procurement hosted a panel to assess the lessons learned from the JEDI acquisition process, immediate next steps for the Department of Defense, and how the U.S. government can strengthen data security and access to innovation with future cloud service contracts.

The panelists were Hudson Senior Fellow William Schneider Jr.; Cornell professor and founding chairman of the National Academies Forum on Cyber Resilience, Dr. Fred Schneider; and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence, John Stenbit. Discussion was moderated by Hudson Senior Fellow Tod Lindberg.