Oracle has filed the first protest of the Department of Defense’s $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract, less than two weeks after the agency issued its final request for proposals.
Oracle’s protest, filed with the Government Accountability Office Aug. 6, comes as little surprise, as many private sector companies have criticized the DoD’s intent to award JEDI to a single provider, handing whichever company is awarded the contract a significant share of the defense cloud market.
But Pentagon officials have been adamant that the contract is still designed for competition and will not automatically be awarded to one of the few cloud behemoths that can currently meet all capabilities, such as Amazon Web Services. Officials have also stated that a single award still remains the best method for achieving the DoD’s desired outcome.
A GAO decision on the protest is due Nov. 14, nearly a month after the bidding deadline for the contract closes on Sept. 17.
Washington Technology first reported the protest.
Jessie Bur covers federal IT and management.
