Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Tuesday 10 december 2019
Amazon says Trump’s ‘improper pressure’ doomed Pentagon bid

By MATT O'BRIEN and JO- that Trump’s views toward
SEPH PISANI Amazon were on the mind
Amazon says President of officials in charge of
Donald Trump’s “improper awarding the contract.
pressure” and behind-the- “That’s hard to show,” Tief-
scenes attacks harmed its er said. “But it’s not impos-
chances of winning a $10 sible.”
billion Pentagon contract. Amazon makes the case
The Pentagon awarded in the lawsuit that its cloud
the cloud computing con- services were a better fit
tract to Microsoft in Octo- for the project because of
ber. its speed, efficiency and
Amazon argues in a lawsuit experience securely han-
unsealed Monday in the dling classified government
U.S. Court of Federal Claims data. It says the Defense
that the decision should be Department made errors in
revisited because of “sub- the procurement process
stantial and pervasive er- that make little sense with-
rors” and Trump’s interfer- out taking into account
ence. Trump’s antipathy toward
Amazon and its founder Amazon. Some of the law-
Jeff Bezos are a frequent In this Feb. 14, 2019, file photo people stand in the lobby for Amazon offices in New York. Amazon suit’s details are redacted
target of Trump. Bezos per- says President Donald Trump's “improper pressure" and behind-the-scenes attacks harmed its for proprietary or security
sonally owns The Washing- chances of winning a $10 billion Pentagon contract. reasons. “Basic justice re-
ton Post, which Trump has Associated Press quires reevaluation of pro-
referred to as “fake news” Pentagon spokeswoman Enterprise Defense Infra- ties and enable the military posals and a new award
whenever unfavorable sto- Elissa Smith said in a state- structure plan, or JEDI, the to advance its use of artifi- decision,” the lawsuit says.
ries are published about ment Monday the decision military’s computing proj- cial intelligence. “The stakes are high. The
him. to select Microsoft “was ect would store and pro- Amazon and Microsoft question is whether the
Amazon said it lost the deal made by an expert team cess vast amounts of clas- became the finalists after President of the United
due to Trump’s “personal of career public servants sified data. The Defense Oracle and IBM were elimi- States should be allowed
vendetta against Mr. Bezos, and military officers” and Department has said it will nated in an earlier round to use the budget of DoD
Amazon, and the Washing- without external influence. help speed up its war plan- of the contract competi- to pursue his own personal
ton Post.” Formally called the Joint ning and fighting capabili- tion. Oracle had also sued, and political ends.”
arguing the bidding was Amazon Web Services has
George Laurer, inventor of ubiquitous rigged in Amazon’s favor. been the industry leader
waded in moving businesses and
Trump
publicly
UPC, dies at 94 into the bidding process other institutions onto its
over the summer, saying cloud — a term used to
he heard complaints and describe banks of servers in
WENDELL, N.C. (AP) — wanted the Pentagon to remote data centers that
George J. Laurer, whose take a closer look. can be accessed from al-
invention of the Univer- “The department is confi- most anywhere. But Micro-
sal Product Code at IBM dent in the JEDI award and soft’s Azure cloud platform
transformed retail and remains focused on getting has been steadily catching
other industries around this critical capability into up, as have other provid-
the world, has died. He the hands of our warfight- ers such as Google, in both
was 94. ers as quickly and efficient- corporate and govern-
A funeral was held on ly as possible,” Smith said. ment settings.
Monday for Laurer, who The White House didn’t re- Mike Hettinger, a tech in-
died Thursday at his home turn an emailed request for dustry lobbyist focused on
in Wendell, North Caro- comment Monday. federal contracting, said
lina, a suburb of Raleigh. In this Sept. 24, 2015, file photo, tags with bar codes hang at a Microsoft said in a state- a strong case could have
Sean Bannon with Strick- facility in Flandreau, S.D. ment it has “confidence been made for either Am-
land Funeral Home in Associated Press in the qualified staff at the azon or Microsoft winning
Wendell said he had no Department of Defense, the contract but it is hard
information on Laurer’s are scanned, usually at all kinds of products, ser- and we believe the facts for an outside observer to
cause of death. checkout. vices and other items for will show they ran a de- know what went into the
Laurer was an electrical Laurer said in a 2010 inter- identification. tailed, thorough and fair government’s technical
engineer with IBM in North view that grocery stores “To me, it’s just absolutely process.” evaluations and whether
Carolina’s Research Trian- in the 1970s were dealing amazing, because when Charles Tiefer, a govern- Trump’s comments or ac-
gle Park in the early 1970s with soaring costs and the we were doing this ... I ment contracting law pro- tions influenced the out-
when he spearheaded labor-intensive require- never expected it to be fessor at the University of come. Amazon is likely to
the development of t he ments of putting price anything like this,” Laurer Baltimore, said it would be use the case to seek more
UPC, or bar code. tags on all of their prod- told WRAL-TV in 2010. He “an uphill battle” for Ama- internal documents from
The now-ubiquitous mark- ucts. The bar code led to later produced a patent zon to win the lawsuit. the government.
ing, composed of unique fewer pricing errors and for one of the first hand- The company must prove “I don’t think anybody
black bars and a 12-digit allowed retailers to keep held scanners for reading real influence by the presi- knows what happened be-
number, allowed retail- better account of their in- bar codes, according to dent beyond his tweets hind the scenes,” Hettinger
ers to identify products ventory. an obituary provided by and campaign speeches. said. “I think that’s what this
and their prices as they Today, such UPCs are on the funeral home. q Emails and other docu- lawsuit is intended to find
ments would have to prove out.”q