The Pentagon has warned it may be forced to cancel its $10 billion JEDI contract with Microsoft amid Amazon’s ongoing legal challenges.
Microsoft stunned the industry when it won the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract, worth $10 billion. Amazon immediately sued, claiming a number of issues, including irregularities in the Pentagon’s review process and undue interference from the Trump administration.
The Pentagon corrected its review process, coming to the same conclusion that Microsoft rightfully won the contract. Not content, Amazon renewed its complaints, claiming the Pentagon’s second review process was more flawed than the original. Amazon also maintained the second review showed it was cheaper by tens of millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has maintained that Amazon used the review process to improperly gain access to what Microsoft bid, and then lower its own bid to undercut — illustrating why these type of contracts are supposed to be a blind bidding process, to make sure each company bids fairly.
After refusing to accept its loss and move on, it appears Amazon’s legal tactics may finally be paying off. According to Business Insider, the Pentagon has sent a memo to Congress warning they may have to cancel Microsoft’s JEDI win if Amazon’s legal challenges persist. At this point, the Pentagon is still without much-needed cloud capabilities, seen as important to national security.
The Pentagon is quickly arriving at the point where it may be faster to cancel the contract and start over, in hopes of finally having an up-and-running cloud solution. It’s also possible the Pentagon may go with a multi-cloud approach, rather than awarding it to single company.