Microsoft is offering cloud infrastructure packages – the Joint Enterprise Defence Infrastructure (JEDI) for the defence department of foreign governments. JEDI provides cloud-based computing and storage resources at all government security classification levels, as well as devices that can work offline until they sync back with cloud infrastructure.
This is similar to the one assembled for the US Defence Department. In October 2019, the Pentagon had awarded the JEDI contract, worth up to $10 billion over 10 years, to Microsoft. Sources said Microsoft has committed to staffing the DOD initiative with people who hold sufficient government security clearances, and to deliver a group of existing products and services, as opposed to specially built technologies, at a customized prize.
The company hopes to keep widening its cloud infrastructure business by meeting public sector needs abroad while maintaining a tight collaboration with the Trump administration. A source said the company plans to announce the effort later this year, as intelligence agencies and militaries outside the United States might use it. Another person said Microsoft already has foreign cloud government contracts.
According to CNBC, Microsoft has worked with governments around the world on a longstanding and reliable basis for four decades. “We have government customers using our products to enhance their services with the latest in commercial innovations, deeply engage and connect with citizens in powerful ways, and empower government employees with the modern tools they need to be more efficient and effective and to give them time back to focus on their agency mission.”
The report stated that Microsoft holds international customers close to heart. It said that in Microsoft’s 2020 fiscal year, which ended on June 30, the company derived 51% of its revenue from customers located in the US, down from 71% in the 2002 fiscal year. Microsoft has won Azure business from some federal groups outside the US, including New Zealand’s firefighting agency, France’s space agency and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
