Amazon Asks Court to Pause the Pentagon's JEDI Contract with Microsoft

Amazon.com Inc. asked a court to temporarily pause a $10 billion cloud computing deal between Microsoft Corp. and the Pentagon until a lawsuit questioning its validity is closed.

The company's cloud unit, Amazon Web Services, shared a statement on Wednesday that it was "common practice" to stay contract performance as the protest was pending. 

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What is happening because of the JEDI contract?

In Amazon Web Services' statement, the company said it's "important that the numerous evaluation errors and blatant political interference that impacted the JEDI award decision be reviewed."

https://t.co/BXMw5Qkjrx Inc on Wednesday said it filed a motion to pause the US Department of Defense and Microsoft Corp from carrying out an up to $10 billion cloud computing deal until a court rules on its protest of the contract award. https://t.co/tPkqhwG040

— Deccan Herald (@DeccanHerald) January 23, 2020

When filing the lawsuit in November in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Amazon alleged that the U.S. Defense Department did not properly and fairly judge its bid to win the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI award. The reason being a personal one between President Donald Trump seeing Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, as his "political enemy."

President Trump's discontent with how Bezos manages his company has not been private. The U.S. President has spoken openly about disliking and mistrusting how Bezos' company's shipping rates pay the U.S. Postal Service and his personal ownership of the Washington Post.

.@Amazon today filed a motion in court to pause the U.S. Dept of Defense and @Microsoft from carrying out an up to $10 billion cloud computing deal, here's why ?#Technology #Microsoft #Amazonhttps://t.co/xGlA9Y2g2k

— moneycontrol (@moneycontrolcom) January 23, 2020

Last October, the Defense Department awarded the JEDI contract to Microsoft to update and modernize its computing infrastructure. November's lawsuit aims to halt this contract until a new evaluation or award decision is made. The Pentagon has yet to comment on Amazon's statement from Wednesday.

The JEDI contract is due to consolidate and ameliorate the department's cloud computing infrastructure and update its technology systems. The goal is to provide the military with better access to data and technology from remote locations. 

Breaking News: The Pentagon gave a $10 billion contract to Microsoft over Amazon, the assumed front-runner and a frequent target of criticism by President Trumphttps://t.co/WopMqDeCwq

— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 25, 2019

Until Microsoft won the award, Amazon was seen as the top contender as it had previously won a cloud deal with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as well as having been awarded the highest levels of federal security access.