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Microsoft Wins Pentagon’s $10B Contract

nytimes.com

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Re: Microsoft Wins Pentagon’s $10B Contract

#251

Post by mrbonner »

rshnotsecure wrote: post #26

Since the early 2000s, Microsoft has done a significant amount of work for the NSA. AWS has had GovCloud, and it is true the CIA uses AWS, but MSFT has built out quite well some of the more exotic requests of the NSA. The crown jewel of the NSA’s MSFT partnership is the San Antonio, Texas data center. The “5150 Rogers Road” data center was chosen because Texas has cheap electricity, which is an enormous cost outlay f…

In term of data center importance, you miss a big point that Augusta, GA is becoming the NSA and USA center for information warfare. The NSA has been moving more and more staff from Maryland there. In recent years. Hell, Comcast even dumps a significant budget to “upgrade” their infrastructure near and around Ft. Gordon. So, I don’t believe San Antonio is as significant as Augusta.

Re: Microsoft Wins Pentagon’s $10B Contract

#252

Post by mattrp »

reaperducer wrote: post #243
gtirloni wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Texas has a separate electrical grid from the rest of the US. This is interesting. The Wikipedia article has this gem: "The Texas Interconnection is maintained as a separate grid for political, rather than technical reasons" https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2003/08/why-texas-has-it...

I lived in Texas during both the big northeast blackout and during the (previous) electricity crisis in California. Both times it was a big point of pride among Texans that their grid was independent of the coasts.

Wouldn’t you be proud of the fact that your state government hadn’t mismanaged its infrastructure into the dark ages (pun intended)?

Re: Microsoft Wins Pentagon’s $10B Contract

#253

Post by p0rkbelly »

solidasparagus wrote: post #192
p0rkbelly wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Azure revenue includes O365 revenue though.

I'm looking at their earning reports and that does not appear to be the case any more.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/microsoft-earnings-trounce...

"Microsoft said that its “Intelligent Cloud” segment recorded revenue of $10.8 billion, higher than the average analyst estimate of $10.42 billion. Microsoft said that Azure grew by 59%; the company does not break out Azure revenue nor operating income specifically, as Amazon does with AWS."

I'm sure Azure is a strong business, but, if they wanted to brag about it, why wouldn't they would break out those numbers? Intelligent cloud includes Azure + 0365 + other stuff.

Google does this with GCP as well. They report Google Docs/Gmail/G Suite + GCP +other combined.

Re: Microsoft Wins Pentagon’s $10B Contract

#254

Post by reaperducer »

mattrp wrote: post #252
reaperducer wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in Texas during both the big northeast blackout and during the (previous) electricity crisis in California. Both times it was a big point of pride among Texans that their grid was independent of the coasts.

Wouldn’t you be proud of the fact that your state government hadn’t mismanaged its infrastructure into the dark ages (pun intended)?

During my years as a temporary Texan, I found many reasons to be proud of Texas, but the electrical grid thing seemed a little over-jingoistic.

Re: Microsoft Wins Pentagon’s $10B Contract

#255

Post by Frost1x »

mattrp wrote: post #250
simonebrunozzi wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sound like a smart guy, but most of your considerations are not as important as you think they are. 1) The San Antonio data center: yes, it's a big and shiny one, but you don't pick MSFT vs AWS because of a shiny data center. AWS has amazing DCs across the US, and if you talk to people in the industry, AWS and Google have the most advanced DC technology out there, with Microsoft lagging a bit (but not too far off…

In regards to proximity, I felt the prior commenter was saying that aws had not made a physical investment inside a military state.. meaning the pentagon prioritized bidders that aligned with existing pork/spending priorities. I don’t know if that’s true but it’s an intriguing assertion.

I mean Amazon's HQ2 is pretty darn close to the pentagon itself, less than a mile away.

Re: Microsoft Wins Pentagon’s $10B Contract

#256

Post by infecto »

DKnoll wrote: post #233
dmak wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's called burying the opponent in papers. I watch Suits, so I know how this works.

I wouldn't call sending truckloads of boxes of paperwork during discovery to opposing counsel and linking a 238-page PDF with a good ToC and summary equivalent, but I guess the internet has robbed a lot of people of basic research skills.

You must be fun to work with.

Re: Microsoft Wins Pentagon’s $10B Contract

#257

Post by H8crilA »

stanfordkid wrote: post #247
H8crilA wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Large groups of people are so embarrassingly bad at predicting the future. They are pretty good at creating the future, though. As in - separating the power grid is a step towards separating other things and finally "separating the country". Classic Soros' reflexivity.

Not sure I understand where reflexivity applies here. It’s a pretty straightforward concept mostly concerned with feedback loop driven price behavior (bubbles).

For example:

Separate the power system -> people's perception about Texas independence increases -> time passes -> let's separate something new, after all we're Texas, we get special treatment. Perception intertwined with action, so that you can't tell what comes first.

Reflexivity is by no means restricted to securities markets. It's an incredibly broadly applicable concept.

Also, in securities markets it's not just that price goes up so more people buy because the price has gone up, so price goes up even more. It's far far worse than that. It's that (for example) stock prices go up, therefore consumer/executive/banks confidence increases, therefore more credit and more spending in the economy, therefore higher corporate profits, therefore higher stock prices. The point is that it affects reality beyond just the securities markets, it affects the "fundamentals" too. I.e. you can't even trust something like a P/E ratio.

Re: Microsoft Wins Pentagon’s $10B Contract

#258

Post by dwoozle »

philsnow wrote: post #176
ethbro wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prepare to be disappointed at a season ending cliffhanger... all over again.

This show felt like so many other shows on American TV in the last decade: somebody had the core of a good idea, but the writers had no idea how to turn that into a show. The first couple episodes of Jericho were tantalizing. The interesting part was the world and the geopolitical situation, but then so little about that actually changed over the course of the following episodes, it was just a bunch of small town pol…

This phenomenon arises from the way that TV shows are produced. The creators write ~6 episodes to showcase the concept and the funding/production decision is made based on these 6 episodes. So the shows are engineered for maximum drama during these 6 episodes, and the rest of the show’s run is trying to maintain a 100 meter sprint pace for sometimes up to 10 years.

This is particularly bad for “conspiracy” type shows where the protagonist uncovered some massive conspiracy in the first six episodes. The rest of the show usually ends up escalating the conspiracy to the massively absurd. “Oh this goes way above the President... it’s a shadowy cabal with an underground lair in Biarritz that is manipulating the entire world for... reasons.”

Re: Microsoft Wins Pentagon’s $10B Contract

#259

Post by DKnoll »

infecto wrote: post #256
DKnoll wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't call sending truckloads of boxes of paperwork during discovery to opposing counsel and linking a 238-page PDF with a good ToC and summary equivalent, but I guess the internet has robbed a lot of people of basic research skills.

You must be fun to work with.

“But the plans were on display…”

“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”

“That’s the display department.”

“With a flashlight.”

“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”

“So had the stairs.”

“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”

Re: Microsoft Wins Pentagon’s $10B Contract

#260

Post by ChrisLTD »

m0zg wrote: post #151
Scipio_Afri wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's not anti war as much as he's anti policy that pushes up against Russian spheres of influence. You see no issue with, and in fact a lot of funding and support increase to, Saudi Arabia. Where as Obama had put a pause on things during the initial outbreak. Didn't condemn things outright in public, but the Obama administration was definitely taking a step back during the Yemen war. The trump administration also has…

>> He's not anti war One of his main campaign promises was that he would withdraw from all the ill-conceived multi-trillion dollar wars in the Middle East. And unlike Obama he's actually keeping his promises. Give credit where credit is due. Even if it is due to Trump.

Where have we withdrawn from?
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