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Seems like the good ol' revolving door trick. Guy works for Amazon in charge of getting companies to use Amazon products more. Then the love for the "American p

by rdtsc 8y ago

Seems like the good ol' revolving door trick. Guy works for Amazon in charge of getting companies to use Amazon products more. Then the love for the "American people" suddenly strikes him > He wanted to use his skills not “to make a search engine more performant, or help a box of stuff get to a customer faster; but rather towards service of the American people, Then, after the contract looked like would be going through, his love the the American people waned and he joined Amazon again > At the end of October 2017, Mr. Ubhi recused himself from JEDI, saying Amazon and his restaurant start-up, Tablehero, “may soon engage in further partnership discussions.” Two weeks later, he resigned and then rejoined Amazon It feels dirty saying it but maybe Oracle has a point here. Though in general this is how the game works in Washington.

solidasparagus 8y ago
It's probably less true now with Microsoft's improvement and growth, but early in this process there was only one company reliably capable of supporting a cloud contract this big and security critical. The idea of trusting Oracle to run the DoD cloud is terrifying.
- ovi256 8y ago
  What about GCP ? What does it lack to fulfill the needs of a contract like DoD's ?
  - solidasparagus 8y ago
    Employees that are okay with indirectly working for the US government? They aren't even competing for JEDI due to employee backlash. But they are also lacking gov certifications and have a weaker history with government contracts than Amazon or Microsoft, which is important because government procurement processes can be pretty arcane.
1024core 8y ago
I think we read different articles. From the article: > The Pentagon released the JEDI request for proposals nine months after Mr. Ubhi recused himself. > Amazon has countered that the Pentagon identified 72 people substantially involved in developing the contract and its requirements, and that Mr. Ubhi worked on JEDI for only seven weeks, in the early stages. Which one would you rather believe: Some random noob, one of 72, works for 7 weeks, and magically has such a major impact that it's still felt 9 months later? Or Amazon, which has been the leader in Cloud for about a decade, is just the better (safer) option?
- rdtsc 8y ago
  > I think we read different articles. Not sure. I clicked this link https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/20/technology/military-contract-deap-ubhi.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/20/technology/military-contr... which one did you click? > Some random noob, one of 72, works for 7 weeks, and magically has such a major impact that it's still felt 9 months later? 9 months is not a lot of time in government land. Before the request for proposal is sent out, often, a pick is already made informally. In fact the best time to lobby is exactly that time to ensure the bid is written to one company's specifications (even though it is illegal). And surprise, the company is the company this person used to work for, and also surprise, surprise advocating its use to other companies. After he quits, then promptly goes back to the same company. This is not unusual and pretty sure Oracle would be doing the same thing, it just they missed the boat, so now are happy to "expose the corruption".
  - 1024core 8y ago
    > After he quits, then promptly goes back to the same company. In isolation, sure, this seems weird. But remember that around that time (Obama admin), a lot of techies were being invited to join the government in the "Digital Service". Many of them took leaves of absence (I know a couple) to work 6 months or a year in the government, fixing their systems, and when done, rejoined their previous companies. So, in context, it's not that unusual. See, for example: https://www.cio.com/article/3288924/us-digital-service-recruits-silicon-valley-innovators-like-matt-cutts-to-modernize-government-tech.html https://www.cio.com/article/3288924/us-digital-service-recru...
    - rdtsc 8y ago
      Hmm. Ok, I see your point. You're right about the Digital Service. And his blog does say that much as well.
panzagl 8y ago
Oracle has burned a lot of bridges in DoD- they have their enterprise DoD agreements for DB and milk those for far more than they're worth. Lots of individual programs would love to get off Oracle, but find themselves tied because in theory it's already paid for.
- rdtsc 8y ago
  Definitely. There was an article here not too long ago about how even at an Oracle conference someone casually polled the attendants and found most would be happy to use something else and were exploring PostgreSQL or other options. Then of course my favorite Oracle bit is from Bryan Cantrill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc&t=33m https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc&t=33m

by rdtsc 8y ago

solidasparagus 8y ago

It's probably less true now with Microsoft's improvement and growth, but early in this process there was only one company reliably capable of supporting a cloud contract this big and security critical. The idea of trusting Oracle to run the DoD cloud is terrifying.

ovi256 8y ago
What about GCP ? What does it lack to fulfill the needs of a contract like DoD's ?
- solidasparagus 8y ago
  Employees that are okay with indirectly working for the US government? They aren't even competing for JEDI due to employee backlash. But they are also lacking gov certifications and have a weaker history with government contracts than Amazon or Microsoft, which is important because government procurement processes can be pretty arcane.

1024core 8y ago

I think we read different articles. From the article: > The Pentagon released the JEDI request for proposals nine months after Mr. Ubhi recused himself. > Amazon has countered that the Pentagon identified 72 people substantially involved in developing the contract and its requirements, and that Mr. Ubhi worked on JEDI for only seven weeks, in the early stages. Which one would you rather believe: Some random noob, one of 72, works for 7 weeks, and magically has such a major impact that it's still felt 9 months later? Or Amazon, which has been the leader in Cloud for about a decade, is just the better (safer) option?

rdtsc 8y ago
> I think we read different articles. Not sure. I clicked this link https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/20/technology/military-contract-deap-ubhi.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/20/technology/military-contr... which one did you click? > Some random noob, one of 72, works for 7 weeks, and magically has such a major impact that it's still felt 9 months later? 9 months is not a lot of time in government land. Before the request for proposal is sent out, often, a pick is already made informally. In fact the best time to lobby is exactly that time to ensure the bid is written to one company's specifications (even though it is illegal). And surprise, the company is the company this person used to work for, and also surprise, surprise advocating its use to other companies. After he quits, then promptly goes back to the same company. This is not unusual and pretty sure Oracle would be doing the same thing, it just they missed the boat, so now are happy to "expose the corruption".
- 1024core 8y ago
  > After he quits, then promptly goes back to the same company. In isolation, sure, this seems weird. But remember that around that time (Obama admin), a lot of techies were being invited to join the government in the "Digital Service". Many of them took leaves of absence (I know a couple) to work 6 months or a year in the government, fixing their systems, and when done, rejoined their previous companies. So, in context, it's not that unusual. See, for example: https://www.cio.com/article/3288924/us-digital-service-recruits-silicon-valley-innovators-like-matt-cutts-to-modernize-government-tech.html https://www.cio.com/article/3288924/us-digital-service-recru...
  - rdtsc 8y ago
    Hmm. Ok, I see your point. You're right about the Digital Service. And his blog does say that much as well.

panzagl 8y ago

Oracle has burned a lot of bridges in DoD- they have their enterprise DoD agreements for DB and milk those for far more than they're worth. Lots of individual programs would love to get off Oracle, but find themselves tied because in theory it's already paid for.

rdtsc 8y ago
Definitely. There was an article here not too long ago about how even at an Oracle conference someone casually polled the attendants and found most would be happy to use something else and were exploring PostgreSQL or other options. Then of course my favorite Oracle bit is from Bryan Cantrill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc&t=33m https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc&t=33m