According to a court filing on Monday, Amazon.com is to ask a judge to block Microsoft Corp temporarily from working on the $10 billion Pentagon cloud contract.
Amazon was viewed as a favourite for the contract and they plan to file a temporary restraining order on January 24th. According to the filing, the decision shall be made by the federal court by February 11th.
Amazon placed blame on U.S. President Donald Trump as he exerted improper pressure and bias on the Department of Defence (DoD) to award Microsoft the Joint Enterprise Defence Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud contract.
DoD stood by its decision saying that Secretary Mark Esper rejected claims of bias and that the decision was conducted in a free and fair manner without any influence from outside.
The JEDI contract is a section of the larger digital modernisation plan of the Pentagon, making it more agile technologically. The goal of the cloud contract is to give the military better data access using the cloud from battlefields and remote locations.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field.