Amazon, Microsoft cleared in DOD bid

SEATTLE — A federal judge ruled Friday that Amazon did not unduly influence the shape of one of the largest technology contracts in the Pentagon’s history, setting the stage for the Department of Defense to choose between Amazon and Microsoft for the $10 billion project.

Oracle had alleged that Amazon and the Defense Department biased the contract, known as the joint enterprise defense infrastructure, or JEDI, in Amazon’s favor because of conflicts of interest with past employees. The Pentagon’s internal reviews previously dismissed the claims, as did the Government Accountability Office. On Friday, Judge Eric Bruggink of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims found that those previous findings “were not arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law.”

There are no obvious remaining paths for Oracle to challenge the Department of Defense’s approach before the contract is awarded probably in late August.

Doug Stone, an Amazon spokesman, said in a statement that the company “stands ready to support and serve what’s most important — the DOD’s mission of protecting the security of our country.”

The JEDI contract is meant to bring the military into the modern era of cloud computing. The Pentagon plans to award the project to only one cloud vendor, even though many big organizations prefer to work with multiple cloud providers.

Oracle, IBM, Amazon and Microsoft all bid to supply the technology. But in April the Pentagon determined that only Microsoft and Amazon had the capability to deliver the project.