Judge rules for Amazon Web Services over IBM in CIA cloud case
October 8, 2013
Grazed from FCW. Author: Frank Konkel.
Amazon Web Services scored a major victory against IBM in the battle to build the cloud computing infrastructure for the CIA, NSA and the rest of the intelligence community. On Oct. 7, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Thomas Wheeler ruled in favor of AWS, which had challenged the scope of and need for corrective action taken by the CIA in response to recommendations made by the Government Accountability office in June.
Wheeler’s ruling came just a few hours after the conclusion of oral arguments that were closed to the public. His legal opinion is not yet public record, but the ruling essentially overturns GAO’s sustainment of a bid protest filed by IBM after AWS was awarded a cloud computing contract worth up to $600 million…
Both companies have since rebid on the CIA’s procurement, but it appears from Wheeler’s ruling that the rebids are now moot. AWS’s original contract with the CIA, which FCW first reported in March, could stand as is, though it may yet include some modifications suggested by GAO…
Read more from the source @ http://fcw.com/articles/2013/10/07/judge-rules-for-aws-in-cia-cloud-case.aspx