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Microsoft’s president calls for bid protest reforms

After years of pain over the legal battles related to the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract, Microsoft is calling on Congress to take a look at the protest process.

During a Tuesday Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on emerging technologies and national security, Microsoft President Brad Smith said it’s time to examine the protest process because it does not keep up with the speed of technological innovation.  Smith’s remarks come as continuing legal troubles threaten to sink JEDI, which Microsoft was re-awarded in September.

“We all want to ensure fairness,” Smith said. “And that includes a fair right to be heard. But we could definitely benefit from an accelerated timeline to do so.”

The Defense Department conceived the $10 billion JEDI concept around four years ago, but implementation has been held back because of multiple legal challenges from Oracle, IBM and Amazon Web Services throughout the procurement. Oracle recently filed a petition with the Supreme Court for a review of a decision on its own pre-award JEDI protest.

As it stands, a decision from a federal judge on a motion filed by Microsoft and DoD on portions of AWS’s protest alleging improper political influence in the award process by administration officials is pending.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2021/02/microsoft-president-calls-bid-protest-reforms/172248/

Also see: https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2021/02/should-pentagon-reform-its-bid-protest-rules/172260/

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Industry persuades DISA to change market research approach for cloud acquisition

The IT Industry Council, the Alliance for Digital Innovation and the Internet Association wrote to DISA questioning its decision to limit RFI responses to its cloud computing program support office acquisition.

Once again the federal technology community was left flabbergasted and wondering “why?” from a decision by the Defense Department around cloud computing.

This time it’s the Defense Information Systems Agency, which — until it suddenly changed its mind late on Friday — had made a decision that left us all questioning the initial rationale behind yet another cloud acquisition program.

DISA, which receives mostly high marks from industry for its inclusiveness and openness to innovation, decided to do the exact opposite. It initially wanted to limit responses to a request for information for a cloud program office only to 14 large and 23 small vendors on its Systems Engineering, Technology, and Innovation (SETI) vehicle.

But pressure by three industry associations and other experts convinced DISA to change its mind and let other companies beyond those 37 submit RFI responses.

“We appreciate DISA’s swift response and resolution,” said Megan Petersen, ITI’s senior director of policy, public sector and counsel, in a statement to Federal News Network. “We look forward to submitting comments to this important effort on behalf of ITI’s members. We encourage DISA to provide additional opportunities for ITI and the broader tech industry to share perspectives on buying cloud and other innovative technologies.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2021/02/industry-persuades-disa-to-change-market-research-approach-for-cloud-acquisition/

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CIA awards secret multibillion-dollar cloud contract

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has awarded its long-awaited Commercial Cloud Enterprise, or C2E, contract to five companies — Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google, Oracle and IBM.

Under the C2E contract vehicle, the companies will compete for specific task orders issued by the CIA on behalf of itself and the 16 other agencies that comprise the intelligence community. The CIA did not disclose the expected value of the contract to Nextgov, but procurement documents issued by the agency in 2019 indicated it could be worth “tens of billions” of dollars over the next decade and a half.

“We are excited to work with the multiple industry partners awarded the Intelligence Community (IC) Commercial Cloud Enterprise (C2E) Cloud Service Provider (CSP) contract and look forward to utilizing, alongside our IC colleagues, the expanded cloud capabilities resulting from this diversified partnership,” CIA spokeswoman Nicole de Haay told Nextgov Friday.

C2E represents the CIA’s next step in cloud computing, having awarded an existing contract — dubbed C2S  —to Amazon Web Services in 2013 to provide a variety of cloud computing services for the CIA and intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency and FBI.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/11/exclusive-cia-awards-secret-multibillion-dollar-cloud-contract/170227/

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GSA, DoD try again to get multi-billion dollar cloud contract up and running

More than a year after the initial award, the General Services Administration and the Defense Department chose the same contractor for the Defense Enterprise Office Solutions (DEOS) contract.

GSA announced it again picked the team led by CSRA LLC, now known as General Dynamics-IT, for the 10-year, $4.4 billion blanket purchase agreement. The initial award back in August 2019 was estimated to be worth between $7.6 billion and $12.6 billion. It is unclear why the estimate of the BPA changed.  GSA declined to comment about the award until after the 10-day protest period.

GD-IT, which also runs the MilCloud 2.0 platform, is teaming with Dell Marketing L.P. and Minburn Technology Group LLC.

“DEOS is a key part of the department’s Digital Modernization Strategy and its fit-for-purpose cloud offering will streamline our use of cloud email and collaborative tools while enhancing cybersecurity and information sharing based on standardized needs and market offerings,” said Dana Deasy, the DoD chief information officer, in a statement. “The last six months have put enormous pressure on the department to move faster with cloud adoption. All across the department there are demand signals for enterprisewide collaboration and ubiquitous access to information.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/contractsawards/2020/10/gsa-dod-try-again-to-get-multi-billion-dollar-cloud-contract-up-and-running/

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Why the Pentagon’s JEDI saga is far from over

The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure procurement may be grounded until at least February, according to a new timeline agreed to by the government and Amazon Web Services. 

On September 4, the Defense Department awarded Microsoft its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure  cloud contract for a second time, concluding — amid a legal protest filed by Amazon Web Services—that Microsoft’s bid again represented “the best value to the government.”

Yet JEDI remains under a court-ordered injunction first issued in April, shelving any work under the contract until AWS’ protest is resolved. On Sept. 15, the Defense Department submitted—under seal—the source selection documentation it used to re-award the JEDI contract to Microsoft. The move formally concludes nearly five months of time that the Pentagon requested from Federal Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith to correct the JEDI procurement, and represents a significant step to potentially lifting the injunction.

“If there is an injunction imposed by the court, nothing can move forward,” Stan Soloway, president and CEO of Celero Strategies and a former Defense Department acquisition official, told Nextgov. “But, even if a protest is still in play, theoretically the government could declare an urgent need and proceed.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/09/why-pentagons-jedi-saga-far-over/168516/

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