Bidding opened for contractors on the project last week, sparking interest throughout the technology sector, ranging from Microsoft to IBM. However, Amazon is reportedly the only company that meets the Defense Department's regulations on handling classified information.
That's not so much of a surprise. Amazon's all-powerful Amazon Web Services (AWS) is already used by many different branches and sub-branches of the US government. In 2013, AWS won a cloud contract with the ever-secretive CIA, and Amazon touts its work with the State Department, Homeland Security's United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the FDA, several NASA projects and more.
Analysts tell the Washington Times that the project is so valued that companies may rework their cloud storage structures in order to meet the Pentagon's demands.
The deal may come as a slap in the face to US President Donald Trump, who consistently rails against Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos, as well as the Bezos-owned Washington Post. On June 17, Trump encouraged Amazon workers to have a "really long strike."
Amazon workers did strike in July, although the stoppage wasn't really long: just three days to hit the company where it hurt during its annual Prime Day sale.
In Spain, 1,800 workers went on strike, and thousands of others followed suit in Germany and Poland, as Bezos' net worth broke $150 billion, making him the richest man in modern history. Some of the workers in Spain were beaten by police while demonstrating at an Amazon warehouse.