Amazon's HQ2 search tied to Pentagon?

Defense One technology editor Patrick Tucker says the Pentagon’s move to transfer classified data to the cloud is a reason why Amazon is considering the Washington, D.C. area for its second headquarters.

Amazon may have had much more than location in mind while considering the Washington, D.C., area for its second headquarters.

The Defense Department, in early March, opened a controversial winner-take-all competition, for a multibillion dollar cloud services contract, which Amazon is a frontrunner for.

“[Amazon] will be the likely winner, but you’ve also got Microsoft gunning hard for it, IBM and even potentially Google all want to be that single cloud provider,” said Defense One technology editor Patrick Tucker to FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on “Varney & Co.”

While the migration to the cloud presents some risks, the move would give the Pentagon the opportunity to potentially move data much faster and provide data accountability.

“It’s going to be the mother load of IT contracts for the Defense Department,” said Tucker.

Amazon also developed a cloud service for the CIA in 2014.