Updated 15.50 with AWS Comment
On Friday Amazon Web Services (AWS) filed court documents to a US claims court removing any doubt about its intent to contest the $10 billion (£7.9 billion) cloud computing contract which was awarded to Microsoft last month.
The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract, also known as JEDI, is for the provision of U.S. Department of Defense cloud services.
This is a colossal undertaking as the Pentagon currently has more than 3.4 million end users, four million endpoint devices, 1,700 different data centers and 500 cloud initiatives, many of which require the highest levels of security classification.
The filings were submitted to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims where Judge Patricia E. Campbell−Smith will be the presiding official.
Amazon’s lawyer asked the Judge to seal the court filings stating that they: “Contain source selection sensitive information, as well as AWS’s proprietary information, trade secrets, and confidential financial information, the public release of which would cause either party severe competitive harm.”
An AWS spokesperson told Computer Business Review that: “AWS is uniquely experienced and qualified to provide the critical technology the U.S. military needs, and remains committed to supporting the DoD’s modernization efforts. We believe it’s critical for our country that the government and its elected leaders administer procurements objectively and in a manner that is free from political influence. Numerous aspects of the JEDI evaluation process contained clear deficiencies, errors, and unmistakable bias- and it’s important that these matters be examined and rectified.”
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Microsoft and AWS Files Court Documents
It is believed that a part of Amazon’s case contesting the awarded DoD contract revolves around President Trump who has targeted Amazon numerous times during press conferences and on social media.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/897763049226084352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E897763049226084352&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fabcnews.go.com%2FPolitics%2Fpresident-trump-attacks-amazon-tweet%2Fstory%3Fid%3D54093899
Trump claimed that he received letters “complaining from different companies like Microsoft and Oracle and IBM” about Amazon and the JEDI contract and that the White House would take a “very strong look at it”
Microsoft has also filed a motion asking the courts to be included in the case as an ‘intervenor’ (third-party) so that they can defend the contract win.
A Microsoft spokesperson informed Reuters that: “We believe the facts will show they (DoD) ran a detailed, thorough and fair process in determining the needs of the warfighter were best met by Microsoft.”
Amazon submitted a pre-filing notice on the 8 of November. The U.S. Department of Defense has until the 21 of January to respond to Amazon’s complaint.
