Amazon has launched a formal complaint against the US government's awarding of a $10 billion cloud contract to Microsoft. The retail giant filed a formal notice in the US Court of Federal Claims on Thursday, alleging that the Pentagon's decision to give Microsoft the contract was "unmistakably biased" and likely involved "political influence."
The controversial contract in question is to meet the government's cloud computing needs in the next ten years. The ordered cloud computing service within the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract is reportedly worth up to $10 billion.
The Pentagon originally awarded the contract to Microsoft late in October. Amazon only launched its protest on the awarding of the contract this week. The contract has long been expected to go to Amazon given its superior experience in cloud computing and its formidable position within the space.
The cloud computing contract is a big deal for Microsoft as it does coincide with its previous plans to expand its cloud computing business. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella previously stated that they will be making the company's cloud services its highest priority moving forward.
For Amazon, landing the contract isn't quite as much a big of a deal given that its cloud computing business is performing very well. The company's Amazon Web Services unit had reported total revenues of over $9 billion in its latest quarter.
While it may not be as much of a big deal for Amazon, the company is still fighting for its competitive rights in the matter. According to the company, numerous aspects of the JEDI contract were deficient and there was some biased in the selection process. Amazon demanded that the government be forced to review its selection process.
Microsoft has yet to issue an official statement following Amazon's legal action. The Pentagon has mentioned that it still would not speculate on the details of the possible litigation.
Before the awarding of the contract to Microsoft, several US tech companies had complained about the Pentagon's review process. Some companies had claimed that the process and the contract's specification favored Amazon too much. The complaints had even reached US President Donald Trump, who confirmed last month that he had received numerous complaints from some of the "greatest companies in the world," including Oracle and IBM.
The JEDI contract was originally scheduled to be awarded in September last year. However, the decision was ultimately postponed by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who revealed that he needed to run a series of thorough reviews on each bid before making a final decision.
