The Empire Strikes Back? Don’t you just love a little politics mixed with your technology? Everyone does, apparently, as Amazon is looking to put up a fight against Pentagon for its recent decision.
The one that saw the DoD award Microsoft the JEDI project.
This news wall all the rage last week, when it emerged that the United States Department of Defense had chosen Microsoft for the contract for the JEDI project, which is said to be a $10 billion affair that will see the military modernize its systems.
Before the announcement, it was believed that Amazon was the frontrunner to get the contract, but the official confirmation even took the company by surprise.
But now that the decision has been made, there is a chance that Amazon could contest the decision in order to show how serious the company is about government contracts. An insider with knowledge of the matter says that the cloud giant is not going to give up without a fight.
To that end, Amazon has three days to get a debriefing where it will find out why it was unsuccessful. It will also receive information about the evaluation process. The debriefing may be extended a few more days if the DoD allows additional questions from the firm.
Following that, Amazon can file a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) within five days, if the company is still unhappy with how the events have unfolded. GAO would have 100 days to make a decision.
During that time, Amazon gets an automatic stay of performance.
And, depending on the response it gets from GAO, Amazon will have the option to ramp things up even further by taking the matter to the Court of Federal Claims.
So, basically, it all depends on just how far Amazon is likely to take this, if it sees a prejudice against it from the administration that saw this very high-profile contract go to its immediate rival. Particularly as its bid was publicly ridiculed by US President Donald Trump.
Long story short, this is far from over!
