What Will Trump Do? AWS Seeks Deposition for JEDI Lawsuit

The week is off to a big start with cloud news pouring in from around the world. Check out what AWS hopes to have in store for President Trump, the activity happening at Tencent Cloud, Netskope and two channel partners on the East and West Coasts.

AWS: Trump Needs to Testify About ‘Involvement’ in JEDI Bidding Process

File under, “Respectable effort, but good luck.”

Amazon Web Services wants to depose President Trump, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and a number of other high-profile public figures as it fights the award of the $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract to Microsoft Azure.

NPR reports that AWS, in newly unsealed documents, seeks testimony from Trump “about conversations or other involvement he had regarding the JEDI bid process or efforts to harm Amazon or AWS.”

Those documents acknowledge that deposing a sitting president “presents unique circumstances,” as NPR noted.

Amazon further wants to hear from Esper, former Defense Secretary James Mattis, Defense Department Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy and other people who were part of the selection process. Their names were redacted.

AWS lost the much-coveted project to Microsoft in October. Amazon contends that Trump’s public beef with Amazon CEO and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos directly influenced the outcome.

Microsoft was slated to start working on JEDI Tuesday; it’s not clear whether that will proceed as planned, given the legal resistance from AWS.

Tencent Cloud Targets Singapore With New Security Certification

Singapore represents one of the hottest cloud computing markets in the world, and Tencent Cloud has earned the highest level within the Multi-Tier Cloud Security Standard Singapore Standard (MTCS SS) that proves to businesses it has the chops to serve them.

Boston Consulting Group calls Singapore “one of the most advanced public cloud markets in the APAC region.” To that point, the research firm projects public cloud investment in Singapore to reach $3.6 billion in 2023, a compound annual growth rate of 20% that started in 2018.

Thus, it makes sense for providers such as Tencent Cloud to secure the MTCS SS, a stringent certification that proves capabilities to provide the highest level of security to enterprise cloud users — not just in Singapore, but also throughout Asia and the rest of the world.

Tencent Cloud now conforms to Tier 3 – the most exacting – of the MTCS SS. That means enterprises and channel partners alike have “confidence and piece of mind” about the security of the provider’s services, Poshu Yeung, vice president of Tencent International Business Group, told Channel Futures.

“Businesses that rely on cloud computing services will be able to use the MTCS SS to better understand and assess the cloud security they require,” Yeung said. “For example, a low-risk, public-facing website could rely on a Tier 1-certified CSP, while more sensitive business and personal data might require a Tier 2 or even Tier 3.”

Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure, among other vendors, also hold the MTCS SS designation. Singapore launched the MTCS in 2013 as the first standard aimed to give businesses insight into …

assessing and understanding the level of cloud security they need. Covered areas include governance, infrastructure security, operations management, service administration, user access, tenancy and customer isolation, data retention, liability, disaster recovery, as well as incident and issue management, as it all relates to cloud.

For its part, Tencent Cloud ranks among the fastest-growing cloud providers, just behind Google and Alibaba, according to Synergy Research Group. The company so far operates in 25 regions and 53 availability zones worldwide.

Netskope: New Funding Means More Investment in Channel

Netskope earlier this month closed a $340 million investment round.

The cloud security provider (technically classified by Gartner as a cloud access security broker, or CASB) sells through managed service providers, resellers, systems integrators, distributors and other partners. That means the channel benefits directly from the new infusion of money.

Netskope’s Dave Rogers

“As a partner-centric company, this latest funding round enables Netskope to double down on our investments in the channel,” Dave Rogers, vice president of alliances and global channel sales, told Channel Futures. “We’ve just launched our new ‘Evolve’ partner program, we have a new online training platform, we’ve grown our channel team and resources by three times – including a new dedicated channel marketing team – and you’ll see Netskope continue that effort through this year.”

The Netskope platform ensures visibility and real-time data and threat protection when accessing cloud services, websites, and private apps from anywhere, on any device.

Netskope says its valuation now totals almost $3 billion. Investors – new and existing – in the round included Sequoia Capital Global Equities, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, PSP Investments, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Accel, Base Partners, ICONIQ Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Geodesic Capital and Social Capital.

10Pearls, Zen Cloud Join Forces

10Pearls, a Washington, D.C.-based MSP, said this week it has acquired Zen Cloud Technologies, a “boutique” Salesforce and digital consultancy out of San Francisco.

10Pearls partners with AWS and Salesforce, among other providers, but targeted Zen Cloud specifically for its Salesforce Marketing Cloud expertise.

“Salesforce is a key platform for enterprises looking to transform and digitalize,” Imran Aftab, CEO of 10Pearls, said. “The acquisition of Zen Cloud is strategic in many ways for 10Pearls. It bolsters our expertise within Salesforce and Mulesoft, adds to our leadership team, and helps solidify our San Francisco area presence.”

Zen Cloud, founded in 2015, boasts customers including Intuit and Franklin Templeton Investments. Now, 10Pearls says, the combined companies may serve all portfolio clients including Coca-Cola, Docker, Hologic, Stripe and AARP with digital transformation, global team augmentation and around-the-clock managed services.

10Pearls said the Zen Cloud deal brings its global headcount to nearly 500.