Amazon's Bid to Recover Cloud Computing Contract Stays Alive
April 28 2021 - 5:03PM
Dow Jones News
By John D. McKinnon
WASHINGTON -- Amazon.com Inc.'s bid to win back the Pentagon's
JEDI cloud computing contract stayed alive Wednesday as a federal
judge rejected motions by the Defense Department and Microsoft
Corp. to dismiss much of Amazon's challenge of the contract
award.
Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith of the U.S. Court of Federal
Claims rejected the motions, according to a court docket entry. Her
opinion and order in the case weren't made public immediately,
making the extent of the government's legal defeat unclear.
The move is significant nonetheless because it opens the door to
continued protracted court battles over Joint Enterprise Defense
Infrastructure, or JEDI.
Some Pentagon officials have suggested in recent months that the
Defense Department might have to consider other approaches to
obtaining enterprise-level cloud services, rather than pursuing
further years of litigation over the long-delayed JEDI
contract.
The Pentagon didn't immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Amazon has sought to blame its loss in part on improper
political interference in the deal under President Donald
Trump.
In a statement Wednesday, Amazon's cloud division, AWS, said
that it was pleased with the court ruling.
"AWS continues to be the superior technical choice, the less
expensive choice, and would provide the best value to the DoD and
the American taxpayer," the company said.
Microsoft communications executive Frank Shaw dismissed the
decision as a procedural ruling.
"Not once, but twice, professional procurement staff at the DoD
chose Microsoft after a thorough review," he said. "We've continued
for more than a year to do the internal work necessary to move
forward on JEDI quickly, and we continue to work with DoD, as we
have for more than 40 years, on mission critical initiatives."
Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 28, 2021 17:48 ET (21:48 GMT)
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