4 ms·

I have DoD clients currently doing app dev on new and replacement (for legacy) systems. This writers attempt at making the DoD contract look like a conspiracy i

I have DoD clients currently doing app dev on new and replacement (for legacy) systems. This writers attempt at making the DoD contract look like a conspiracy is infuriating. The developer experience in the current data center ecosystem is toxic. The infrastructure and insecurity woes compound daily. I don’t care how much Bezos makes, he has a great product and DoD, nay the country, need this. GovCloud would be ice water for people in hell. I’m mad about this because this affects individual contributors, on up to the country at large. Currently money is wasted and systems are built in ridiculous ways. Imagine each sub program in a branch of service rolling it’s own IAM. That’s just a glimpse at what’s going on. The undifferentiated heavy lifting is unfathomable. Before you respond with virtue signaling about war know that most DoD software is for logistics. Done better it boils down to not wasting tax payer money.

Analemma_ 8y ago
The important thing to realize is that this is par for the course with huge government contracts. There is always rancorous mudslinging, submarine stories, etc. The reality is probably that Amazon is using some shady tactics to try and close this deal, but so are all the other bidders (it's not like Microsoft, who is probably the second-most likely to win JEDI, doesn't have an extensive set of Pentagon connections too). This is just how the game is played and you've gotta roll with it. Eventually this will be awarded one way or the other and we'll all move on.
- count 8y ago
  Another thing to look at: Microsoft is almost definitely going to land DoD/IC-wide O365. AWS taking IaaS compute might be the way of giving both Seattle juggernauts some love.
samstave 8y ago
The cottage industry around this specific contract is going to be massive. Whats really interesting though, is that, a huge swath of talent will be ineligeble to work on this as GovCloud/FedRamp requirements for US Citizen employees, physically located in the US to be able to access and work on any of these systems really does impose some limits on the pool. And while, regardless of how you look at this, it is dysopian from the Corporate-yberPunk-Future perspective (small book seller is now the richest man in the world, and is responsible for the company which monolithically provides the largest government military its computing infra) - There arent really any other alternatives. I'd say that the opportunity sitting right in front of the talent pool who couldnt be legally able to work on GovCloud implementations would be to ramp up their training and setting up consulting groups who can.
- ryanmarsh 8y ago
  a huge swath of talent will be ineligeble to work on this as GovCloud/FedRamp requirements for US Citizen employees That doesn't stop some DoD contractors from still subcontracting foreign nationals. Crazy what goes on. Question: How do you vet a non-citizen for work on a DoD system? Let me give you a tiny example. Let's say you have a system for keeping track of jet parts. Super important stuff. What's to say a foreign agent couldn't make a subtle "mistake" that allows for misuse or misallocation of parts by not properly storing their flight history? Planes fail and fall out of the sky. This could totally happen (not saying it has although, again, the stories I hear JFC) and a competing state would be foolish not to try it.
  - samstave 8y ago
    >...a competing state would be foolish not to try it. Yeah, there is no way that this contract is not the largest target possible... I am honestly fascinated and really interested in the cyber-warfare that has, is and will be going on. Just thinking about Stuxnet/Duqu is pretty amazing - the things that are going on that we don't currently know about and the things that will happen are very interesting. What I would like to determine, as an emergent tell of the electronic warfare between states is the true disposition between "enemies" -- i.e. we know that Iran and Israel really are enemies and assassinating targets of opportunity (stuxnet ++ engineers previously killed), but it should be telling when publicly on state denounces another (e.g. US denounces NK), but then doesnt take any back-channel actions against the state - or the reverse...
mindslight 8y ago
> Before you respond with virtue signaling about war know that most DoD software is for logistics. Done better it boils down to not wasting tax payer money. It is not "virtue signaling" to be actually anti-war. Most virtue signaling on this topic revolves around the motte-and-bailey of "support the troops". Furthermore, if one is anti-war, then making the military less expensive isn't actually a good thing. (or you could have just left this last bit out and stayed less political)

Analemma_ 8y ago

The important thing to realize is that this is par for the course with huge government contracts. There is always rancorous mudslinging, submarine stories, etc. The reality is probably that Amazon is using some shady tactics to try and close this deal, but so are all the other bidders (it's not like Microsoft, who is probably the second-most likely to win JEDI, doesn't have an extensive set of Pentagon connections too). This is just how the game is played and you've gotta roll with it. Eventually this will be awarded one way or the other and we'll all move on.

count 8y ago
Another thing to look at: Microsoft is almost definitely going to land DoD/IC-wide O365. AWS taking IaaS compute might be the way of giving both Seattle juggernauts some love.

samstave 8y ago

The cottage industry around this specific contract is going to be massive. Whats really interesting though, is that, a huge swath of talent will be ineligeble to work on this as GovCloud/FedRamp requirements for US Citizen employees, physically located in the US to be able to access and work on any of these systems really does impose some limits on the pool. And while, regardless of how you look at this, it is dysopian from the Corporate-yberPunk-Future perspective (small book seller is now the richest man in the world, and is responsible for the company which monolithically provides the largest government military its computing infra) - There arent really any other alternatives. I'd say that the opportunity sitting right in front of the talent pool who couldnt be legally able to work on GovCloud implementations would be to ramp up their training and setting up consulting groups who can.

ryanmarsh 8y ago
a huge swath of talent will be ineligeble to work on this as GovCloud/FedRamp requirements for US Citizen employees That doesn't stop some DoD contractors from still subcontracting foreign nationals. Crazy what goes on. Question: How do you vet a non-citizen for work on a DoD system? Let me give you a tiny example. Let's say you have a system for keeping track of jet parts. Super important stuff. What's to say a foreign agent couldn't make a subtle "mistake" that allows for misuse or misallocation of parts by not properly storing their flight history? Planes fail and fall out of the sky. This could totally happen (not saying it has although, again, the stories I hear JFC) and a competing state would be foolish not to try it.
- samstave 8y ago
  >...a competing state would be foolish not to try it. Yeah, there is no way that this contract is not the largest target possible... I am honestly fascinated and really interested in the cyber-warfare that has, is and will be going on. Just thinking about Stuxnet/Duqu is pretty amazing - the things that are going on that we don't currently know about and the things that will happen are very interesting. What I would like to determine, as an emergent tell of the electronic warfare between states is the true disposition between "enemies" -- i.e. we know that Iran and Israel really are enemies and assassinating targets of opportunity (stuxnet ++ engineers previously killed), but it should be telling when publicly on state denounces another (e.g. US denounces NK), but then doesnt take any back-channel actions against the state - or the reverse...

mindslight 8y ago

> Before you respond with virtue signaling about war know that most DoD software is for logistics. Done better it boils down to not wasting tax payer money. It is not "virtue signaling" to be actually anti-war. Most virtue signaling on this topic revolves around the motte-and-bailey of "support the troops". Furthermore, if one is anti-war, then making the military less expensive isn't actually a good thing. (or you could have just left this last bit out and stayed less political)