Microsoft beats Amazon in a $10 billion Defense JEDI contract bid Watch Now

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is to file a temporary restraining order on Microsoft's work for the Pentagon's JEDI contract until a federal court makes a decision on the contested deal on February 11.

The planned request is detailed in a proposed timeline that AWS and Microsoft submitted to the US Court of Federal Claims in Washington on Monday, according to Bloomberg.

AWS said in its filing it "intends to file a motion for temporary restraining order and/or preliminary injunction to prevent the issuance of substantive task orders under the contract, which the United States has previously advised AWS and the Court will begin on February 11".

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Microsoft will ask the judge to dismiss the lawsuit and both companies plan to file their requests on January 24 with the hope that a decision will be made on February 11.

Amazon filed its lawsuit against the DoD under seal in November. In December court filings revealed that AWS accused the department of making a flawed decision due to "improper pressure from President Donald J Trump, who launched repeated and behind-the-scenes attacks to steer the JEDI contract away from AWS to harm his perceived political enemy – Jeffry P Bezos, founder and CEO OF AWS's parent company, Amazon.com, and owner of the Washington Post".

Microsoft was awarded the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract on October 25, offering it a long-term cloud computing deal that could be worth up to $10bn over 10 years.

The JEDI contract is meant to give the Pentagon a more nimble computing infrastructure and deliver better information to troops in the field.

The JEDI contract itself is important, but it also gives Microsoft an edge on any new tech deals with other large federal agencies. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told Yahoo News today that deals like JEDI have a "halo effect" but noted that it would not "take any deal you won as some guarantee for future success".

Image: Michael Vadon Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

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