Microsoft: Amazon is drowning JEDI with complaints

When Amazon Web Services filed an agency protest with the Defense Department seeking clarity about technical aspects of the $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract, Microsoft hit back in a May 7 blog post.

"Amazon is at it again, trying to grind this process to a halt, keeping vital technology from the men and women in uniform -- the very people Amazon says it supports," Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw wrote in the post. "This latest filing …. is another example of Amazon trying to bog down JEDI in complaints, litigation and other delays designed to force a do-over to rescue its failed bid."

Microsoft was awarded the JEDI contract in October, but a lawsuit from rival AWS and an early legal ruling from a federal judge induced the Pentagon to amend the solicitation and invite new bids on storage requirements for the portion of the request for bids called "price scenario 6"  a cloud storage component that, according to the judge's read on the bids, was out of compliance with JEDI requirements.

AWS countered with its own email blast to reporters saying that DOD declined to answer specific questions on the amended solicitation. "We simply want to ensure a common understanding of the DOD's requirements and eliminate ambiguity that could impact a fair evaluation," an AWS spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

AWS appears to doubt the sincerity of the proposed corrective action because of a number of factors identified in other parts of the lawsuit, including political interference from the White House that allegedly steered the contract to Microsoft because of President Donald Trump's well-documented animus to Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of AWS parent company Amazon. That lawsuit is in the midst of 120-day remand while DOD considers revised bids.

Still, Shaw said the cold facts are that AWS isn't getting a do-over when it comes to its bid for the JEDI contract, which has a $10 billion ceiling value over 10 years.

"[T]he changes DoD have made based on the judge's ruling do not allow Amazon to undo its earlier business decision to bid high, which resulted in their loss. It does not allow Amazon to completely re-do its pricing, especially now that it knows Microsoft's price and has a target to shoot at. And it does not allow Amazon to tilt the playing field in its favor," Shaw wrote.

This article was first posted to FCW, a partner site to Defense Systems.