Oracle Takes JEDI Case to Court

Oracle is not done challenging the legality of the Pentagon’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract.

The software giant, which saw its bid protest against JEDI denied by the Government Accountability Office in November, filed a lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

Details of the complaint are currently under seal, but Oracle’s previous bid protests centered around the Pentagon’s decision to award JEDI—worth up to $10 billion over a decade—to a single cloud service provider rather than multiple companies.

In a statement, Oracle Senior Vice President Ken Glueck argued against the Defense Department’s decision-making.

“The technology industry is innovating around next generation cloud at an unprecedented pace and JEDI as currently envisioned virtually assures [the Defense Department] will be locked into legacy cloud for a decade or more,” Glueck said Friday. “The single-award approach is contrary to well established procurement requirements and is out of sync with industry’s multi-cloud strategy, which promotes constant competition, fosters rapid innovation and lowers prices.”

Oracle’s bid protest hinged on three grounds: The Pentagon’s decision to award JEDI to a single company went against statute, the terms of the contract restricted competition and the agency failed to consider potential conflicts of interest related to the acquisition.

It is unclear how Oracle’s legal action will affect the JEDI contract. The Pentagon accepted bids from at least four companies—Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM and Oracle—in October, and is expected to award the contract in early 2019. Meanwhile, the contract remains under a pre-award protest from IBM filed in October. GAO is not expected to issue a decision on IBM’s protest until Jan. 18. Decisions against the government by GAO or the Court of Federal Claims could force the Pentagon to rework JEDI.

Federal News Network first reported Oracle’s lawsuit.