Technology

Microsoft announced today that itreleased Azure Stack for Azure Government at a time when itbattling rivals at Amazon and other cloud companies for the massive winner-take-all $10 billion Pentagon cloud contract known as JEDI.

Azure Stack provides customers with a similar set of cloud services that they would get in the public cloud, but inside the cozy confines of the customer data center. For Azure cloud customers who are looking to manage across public and private environments, often referred to as a hybrid approach, it gives a common look and feel across both public and private.

&As a cornerstone of Microsoft hybrid cloud approach, consistency means government customers get the same infrastructure and services with Azure Stack as they do with Azure — the same APIs, DevOps tools, portal, and more,&Natalia Mackevicius, Program Director, Microsoft Azure Stack wrote in a blog post announcing the new program.

In addition, the company announced it had passed a third-party FedRamp certification. FedRamp is a government program that provides a standardized way for government procurement officials to assess cloud security.

&Azure Stack for Azure Government directly addresses many other significant challenges our top federal government customers face. This includes tough regulatory, connectivity and latency requirements,& Mackevicius, wrote in a blog post announcement.

While this product is geared for any government customer, this news could certainly be appealing to the Pentagon, which is looking for one vendor to rule them in its latest mega cloud RFP. While Microsoft wouldn&t comment on JEDI specifically because itin the midst of answering that RFP, the timing can&t be a coincidence.

Microsoft, along with other competitors including Oracle and IBM, have been complaining bitterly that the one-vendor contract process unfairly favors Amazon. These companies have recommended that the Pentagon go with a multi-vendor approach to prevent lock-in and take advantage of innovation across sellers. The complaints so far has fallen on deaf ears at the Pentagon.

Regardless, Microsoft is still battling hard for the massive contract and todayrelease certainly bolsters their approach as they continue to fight to win the JEDI deal — and other government business.

Netflix announced this morning its Chief Financial Officer David Wells would be stepping down from his role after helping the streaming service choose his successor. The company says it will be considering both internal and external candidates to fill the position. Wells has been with Netflix for 14 years, and has served as CFO since 2010.

&Itbeen 14 wonderful years at Netflix, and I&m very proud of everything we&ve accomplished,& Wells said, in a statement about his plans. &After discussing my desire to make a change with Reed, we agreed that with Netflixstrong financial position and exciting growth plans, this is the right time for us to help identify the next financial leader for the company. Personally, I intend my next chapter to focus more on philanthropy and I like big challenges but I&m not sure yet what that looks like.&

Wells has seen Netflix grow from a U.S.-only streaming service to an international streaming giant, capitalizing on consumers& desire for on-demand, subscription programming delivered over the internet. Today the service has over 130 million members across over 190 countries, but itmore recently been challenged by a host of competitors not only in on-demand & like Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and HBO & but also from streaming TV services that are attracting subscribers who want access to cable TV-like programming and sports.

During its last earnings, Netflix fell short of subscriber forecasts, which panicked Wall Street sending the stock crashing. It could be that the years of rapid growth are now behind it, and the company needs to focus on what gives its service such staying power: its original content. Netflix may spend up to $8 billion this year on 700 original series, in fact.

&David has been a valuable partner to Netflix and to me. He skillfully managed our finances during a phase of dramatic growth that has allowed us to create and bring amazing entertainment to our members all over the world while also delivering outstanding returns to our investors,& said Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO in a statement about Wells& departure. &I look forward to working with him during the transition as we identify a new CFO who will help us continue to pursue our ambitious goals.&

Ericsson is making several significant investments in the US in a bid to speed up deployments of 5G networks in North America and beyond.

The first 5G networks are expected to go live in the US later this year, delivering Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband in urban areas. Japan and South Korea are also expected to be among the first, with