
Google Cloud earns defense contract win for Anthos multi-cloud management tool - MLEnthusiast
https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/20/google-cloud-earns-defense-contract-win-for-anthos-multi-cloud-management-tool/
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kumarm
>> However, today the company announced a new seven-figure contract with DoD’s
Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), a big win for the cloud unit and CEO Thomas
Kurian.

So a single digit Million contract? How is that news at Google scale?

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agakshat
It’s a little interesting because they backed out of the Jedi contract earlier
for ethical concerns.

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jdm2212
I think it was Maven they backed out of due to employee ethical concerns. I
don't know that they were ever a serious contender for JEDI, and they didn't
submit a bid.

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samfisher83
Given the dod budget is bigger than the revenue of google, amzn, and msft
combined and with a million employees why can't they just build their own data
centers?

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throwawaysea
If I had to guess, it is because the working culture of public organizations
(often a lack of motivation/incentive due to lack of competition), combined
with tenure-based job security, and artificial constraints (pay
structures/levels that don't align with the competitive market) mean that
someone like the DoD can't really get something like this done. They wouldn't
be able to hire the right talent. If they did hire talent, that talent would
need to work in the shadow of existing hierarchies/authorities that aren't
suited for the role. Not to mention that bidding processes like LPTA (Lowest
Price Technically Acceptable) would hinder procurement with a lot of red tape
and poor decision making.

TLDR, because they aren't set up for success like private organizations.

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jbay808
I would guess it's less likely to be this, and more likely to be purchasing
rules in place that ask them to by default place bids for private
organizations to carry out work to meet specifications, and only bring it in-
house under exceptional cases or where the bids are very uncompetitive.

These rules often exist as a means of ensuring fairness, as an anti-corruption
measure, or to provide enough business to maintain a robust network of private
contractors.

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downerending
Came here to read about insiders' objections to a deal with DOD. Nothing?

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ocdtrekkie
I would assume the loudest voices have already been driven out, given several
of the protesters from last year claim they were retaliated against by
management.

Employees that create problems for a company usually find themselves outside
the company one way or another.

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downerending
I had assumed that there were many hundreds if not thousands of employees that
would object. Maybe not--perhaps there were just a relatively small number
making a lot of noise in the press.

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ocdtrekkie
People might be unhappy about it, but without people willing to actually speak
up and start a walkout or something, most aren't gonna risk it. The people who
Google drove off were the catalysts who would start a walkout over this stuff,
instead of just expressing discontent on Memegen.

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justicezyx
It was well known that at the JEDI bidding, GCP's offering is vastly behind
MSFT and AWS.

Note that that does not necessary contradict the original decision to withdraw
based on conflicting AI principle.

Edit:

A few things GCP is behind at the time:

* Very weak support team

* Very weak sales team

* Very weak past track record

* Very poor market recognition

* Very limited experience in government contracting

Offering is not just technical features. A product is a combination of a lot
of things, and technical items are usually the less critical ones.

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DevKoala
Can you provide some specifics? I am not refuting your claim.

GCP is my favorite cloud platform to develop on, but obviously the needs of
the US government are different from the needs of an individual software
consultant.

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moandcompany
Google/Alphabet employee here, but not affiliated with GCP.

One quick way to get a grasp of this is to take a look at the FedRamp page for
various Cloud services providers with IaaS and other offerings to see how many
authorizations exist, and at what level:

[https://marketplace.fedramp.gov/#/products?sort=productName&...](https://marketplace.fedramp.gov/#/products?sort=productName&providers=Amazon;Google;Microsoft;Oracle;Rackspace%20Government%20Solutions)

What is FedRamp?

"The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) is a
government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security
assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and
services. This approach uses a “do once, use many times” framework that saves
cost, time, and staff required to conduct redundant Agency security
assessments."

Not all DoD work is classified, but classified data storage, transmission, and
processing has strict standards defined by the National Security Agency. There
are many levels of information classification, and generally these information
levels are not allowed to comingle or information systems are run at a system-
high level (i.e. everything in and about a system is handled at the highest
level of classification for information the system may contain).

Generally, information systems used by the Department of Defense must be
certified and accredited for use by the information owner / equivalent of a
CIO-level role (G6/A6/N6/etc).

Not all cloud service providers have facilities and systems designed and
certified for classified information storage and processing.

[https://fcw.com/articles/2017/11/20/aws-secret-
region.aspx](https://fcw.com/articles/2017/11/20/aws-secret-region.aspx)

[https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/03/defense-
age...](https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/03/defense-agency-begin-
moving-classified-data-amazons-secret-cloud-after-protest/146619/)

[https://www.nextgov.com/it-
modernization/2020/03/microsoft-u...](https://www.nextgov.com/it-
modernization/2020/03/microsoft-upgrades-classified-cloud-offering/164169/)

