Amazon.com Inc.'s cloud-computing unit may challenge the Pentagon's decision to award its high-profile $10 billion cloud contract to Microsoft Corp. within a week.
The U.S. Department of Defense announced Oct. 25 that it chose Redmond, Wash.-based software giant Microsoft for its 10-year Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract designed to put a single cloud service provider in charge of remotely hosting and distributing secret, top-secret and unclassified information to warfighters. The agency's decision came as a surprise to Amazon Web Services Inc. and analysts who considered AWS to be a frontrunner.
AWS may now be devising plans to file a bid protest with the Government Accountability Office, an independent agency that handles legal decisions and opinions for federal bid protests, analysts said.
When asked if AWS will submit a bid protest, a company spokesperson said AWS is continuing to "evaluate its options." A Department of Defense official said the DOD will not speculate on potential litigation. A spokesman for the Government Accountability Office said the agency doesn't "have any information at this point on Amazon’s intentions."
AWS's potential protest must be filed within five days after the close of a requested debriefing with Pentagon officials, said Franklin Turner, a partner and co-leader of the government contracts and export controls practice at McCarter and English LLP, in an interview.
If AWS pursues such a challenge through the GAO, it would trigger what is called an "automatic stay" of the contract award and give the GAO 100 days to reevaluate the Pentagon's decision, Turner said.
"If they get a debriefing this week, you could see a protest in a week or less," he said.
The DOD's decision closes a chapter on a contract that saw intense competition from several of the world's largest tech companies including AWS, Alphabet Inc.'s Google LLC unit, and International Business Machines Corp. Google bowed out of the contest in 2018 and IBM and Oracle Corp. were eliminated in an early round, leaving Amazon and Microsoft as the only two firms in the running. However, protests about the contract process and concerns that Amazon was favored to win caused further delays.
Microsoft and Amazon both reported year-over-year growth in their respective cloud-related segments. Amazon’s cloud segment revenue grew to $9.00 billion in its latest quarter ending Sept. 30, 2019, up 34.7% from $6.68 billion in the quarter ending Sept. 30, 2018. Microsoft’s cloud segment booked $10.85 billion in revenue during its quarter ending Sept. 30, 2019, up 26.6% from $8.57 billion in the year-ago quarter.
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If AWS protests the award, it will likely state in its argument that the company provided precisely what the DOD was primarily looking for: a secure "infrastructure-as-a-service software" that provides access to dedicated computers through a lease as opposed to a purchase agreement, said Patrick Moorhead, president of Moor Insights and Strategy, a Texas-based technology research firm, in an interview.
"That's their specialty," Moorhead said, adding that AWS' infrastructure-as-a-service software offerings are larger and more varied than Microsoft's offerings. "I think what they are going to say is 'Amazon offers the most diverse compute, storage, and networking capabilities than any other cloud vendor.'"
The AWS spokesperson made a similar statement to S&P Global Market Intelligence: "AWS is the clear leader in cloud computing, and detailed assessment purely on the comparative offerings clearly lead to a different conclusion."
Turner, of McCarter and English, said he wouldn't be surprised if Amazon mentions in its bid protest argument that politics played a role in the Pentagon's decision, adding that U.S. President Donald Trump has been highly critical of Amazon in general.
"It is highly unusual for there to be such clear disdain for one competitor to a major acquisition," Turner said.
Meanwhile, Microsoft could be working on plans to leverage its win of the JEDI contract to open the door for additional government contracts with its primary cloud product, Azure, said David Tsui, senior director of S&P Corporate Ratings' U.S. Technology sector, in an interview.
"This is a big win for Microsoft and a good indication that the company will win its fair share of the cloud market that Amazon is currently leading," Tsui said. "There is other non-defense IT infrastructure that still needs to be upgraded as well and this contract gives Microsoft an advantage."