The great cloud migration has begun
October 18, 2013
Grazed from GCN. Author: Michael C. Daconta.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) and IBM recently have been battling in court over a $600 million contract to build a private cloud for the CIA. That’s a sizable contract, but it’s worth much more than its face value. Let’s briefly examine the facts in the case and their ramifications:
- AWS wins the contract from the CIA in late 2012.
- IBM protests to the Government Accountability Office in February 2013.
- GAO sides with IBM on two points and recommends the CIA rebid the contract.
- AWS sues the government to stop the re-bid. IBM files as “intervener” in the case.
- On Oct. 7, a federal judge rules in favor of AWS…
Why did IBM protest? AWS is the leader in offering cloud computing services to businesses and IBM is trying to establish a foothold in the space by leveraging its long history of providing IT services to the government. In many ways, Amazon in this space is disrupting the traditional enterprise IT market. Like other technology disruptions, specifically smartphones, vendors that do not adapt quickly may go out of business. Praveen Asthana, chief marketing officer of Cloud Brokerage company Gravitant, stated in a recent interview that “Cloud computing is the next enterprise battlefield.”…
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