By Debbie Gregory.

The Pentagon has yet to make a decision as to what company will be awarded a multi-billion dollar contract for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract, the cloud technology infrastructure that will handle unclassified material as well as data classified as secret or top secret.

The choice to go with a single-award, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract for the project has had tech companies taking their gripes to federal court. It is believed that Amazon Web Services is the front-runner.

Oracle filed a suit against the Department of Defense in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in early December, and the redacted complaint was published December 10th.

Oracle has claimed since the start of the process that this approach would lock the government into legacy tech and could damage innovation, competition and security – and that it goes against various rules on government procurement for high-value awards.

The lawsuit repeated these assertions, but also alleges conflicts of interest within the DoD and that the Pentagon “crafted” the request for proposals criteria to limit the number of vendors that could compete.

It also claims the government has introduced “unduly restrictive requirements” into the criteria required for vendors to bid, which will “cause Oracle significant competitive prejudice”.

IBM, which first filed a protest of JEDI October 10th, filed additional materials with Government Accountability Office (GAO) November 19th in support of its claim that the DoD has turned its back on the wishes of Congress and the administration, as well as industry best practice in cloud acquisition.

Lawmakers have already called for an investigation into the JEDI contract, saying that it appeared tailored to one specific vendor.

The GAO has until February 27, 2019, to issue a decision on IBM’s protest.

By Debbie Gregory.

The biggest cloud companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, IBM and Oracle, had all been jockeying for bidding position for the winner-take-all Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract. IMB proactively filed a pre-award bid protest with the Government Accountability Office just days before final bids for the lucrative but controversial contract were due.

The contract was ultimately awarded to Microsoft Azure. Oracle Corp had also filed a protest against the Pentagon’s “winner-take-all” cloud computing contract, citing that it restricts the field of competition.

Defense Department officials said in early March that the $10 billion, 10-year contract would be bid out to a single cloud provider, arguing that using more than one provider would add needless complexity.

“We’ve never built an enterprise cloud,” said Dana Deasy, the Pentagon chief information officer overseeing the process. “Starting with a number of firms while at the same time trying to build out an enterprise capability just simply did not make sense.”

“Throughout the year-long JEDI saga, countless concerns have been raised that this solicitation is aimed at a specific vendor,” said Sam Gordy, general manager of IBM U.S. Federal. “At no point have steps been taken to alleviate those concerns.”

The Jedi project involves moving massive amounts of Defense Department data to a commercially operated cloud system. The JEDI cloud is expected to absorb some of the Pentagon’s existing efforts and is considered a “pathfinder” that the Defense Department will build upon for decades.

During this process, at least nine companies had coordinated their opposition in Washington to the government awarding the contract to a single provider.

The latest legal action follows a months-long coordinated lobbying campaign in Washington from IBM and other tech companies to encourage the Defense Department to change its procurement strategy. Whether it will work remains to be seen.