How the Controversial JEDI Contract Changed the Pentagon

In 2017, the Defense Department started kicking around a disruptive idea: What if the department buys—not builds—an enterprise cloud? The department initiated a multibillion-dollar procurement for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud, which hit legal snag after legal snag until DOD cancelled the project in July. Though JEDI was never realized, experts say the contract's true legacy may lie in what it symbolized rather than what it actually produced.