Microsoft boasts of a security win ahead of Pentagon cloud computing bids

Microsoft had said in June that it was making progress toward winning top-level security clearance for the cloud

Microsoft Corp. is on track to catch up with Amazon.com Inc. by obtaining top federal security authorizations early next year, bolstering the company’s position in the Pentagon’s winner-take-all competition for a multibillion-dollar cloud computing deal.

The software company said Tuesday that it will earn the certification required to host the government’s most sensitive and classified information -- a distinction previously held only by Amazon Web Services -- by the end of the first quarter of 2019.

Microsoft’s announcement comes just four days before tech companies submit bids for the Defense Department’s cloud contract, which is widely seen to favor Amazon. The project,