national security | The Contracting Education Academy

September 9, 2020 By cs

Pentagon awards JEDI cloud contract to Microsoft for the second time

The decision follows a months-long legal challenge filed by Amazon Web Services.

The Pentagon awarded its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud computing contract Friday to Microsoft.

The decision follows a 10-month legal battle initiated by Amazon Web Services after the Pentagon selected Microsoft in October 2019 for the contract, worth up to $10 billion over the next 10 years if all options are exercised.

The award comes after numerous controversies and delays for JEDI — in addition to four legal protests filed by companies once in the running for it — that has the contract two years behind schedule.

“The Department has completed its comprehensive re-evaluation of the JEDI Cloud proposals and determined that Microsoft’s proposal continues to represent the best value to the government,” the department said in a statement Friday.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/09/pentagon-awards-jedi-cloud-contract-microsoft-second-time/168259/

August 20, 2020 By cs

Ban on Chinese products starts despite confusion over acquisition rule

The second and more arduous deadline for agencies and vendors to ensure they are no longer using certain Chinese made telecommunications products and services is here, and few are happy about it.

Industry and agencies alike continue to sound the alarm about the potential and real impacts of the interim rule implementing part B of Section 889 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act.

“There is likely going to be significant impacts that will be felt across the federal sector,” said one government official, who requested anonymity in order to talk more candidly about the interim rule. “It’s very clear that the Defense Department and other agencies fully support the intent of the rule. We all know there is a lot of information about how China transmitted data and stole intellectual property so the intent of the rule is to protect our national security is good. But there will be unintended consequences because of how the specific language was written.”

Under the interim rule, which remains open for comments through mid-September, agencies cannot award new contracts, task orders or modify existing contracts to any vendor who doesn’t self-certify that they are not using products from Chinese companies like ZTE and Huawei.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/acquisition-policy/2020/08/ban-on-chinese-products-starts-today-despite-confusion-over-acquisition-rule/

August 18, 2020 By cs

Pentagon requests more time to review JEDI cloud contract bids

The Defense Department says it wants to further discuss Microsoft’s and Amazon Web Services’ pricing.

In a court filing on Aug. 10th, the Defense Department requested a 30-day extension to issue an award decision in its multibillion-dollar Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud contract.

The Defense Department had planned to award JEDI by Aug. 17 after numerous delays, including a 120-day remand sought by the agency in March to take corrective action on issues identified in a legal protest by Amazon Web Services after the Pentagon initially awarded Microsoft the contract in October.

“During the remand, DoD has identified areas of concern with respect to the revised proposals received from both offerors, resulting in multiple solicitation amendments, rounds of proposal revisions, and exchanges with the offerors,” the filing states. “In evaluating each offeror’s final proposal revisions, however, DoD has recently identified the need to reopen limited discussions related to certain aspects of the offerors’ pricing proposals.”

The filing indicates both companies would have another chance to submit questions and a revised bid.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/08/pentagon-requests-more-time-review-jedi-cloud-contract-bids/167599/

June 29, 2020 By cs

Pentagon says it needs ‘more time’ fixing JEDI contract

The JEDI contract will not be awarded until at least August.

In updated legal filings, the Defense Department said it will not be in a position to award its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract to either Microsoft or Amazon Web Services until at least August 17.

The June 16 filing comes more than six months after AWS first challenged the Pentagon’s October award of the $10 billion contract to Microsoft in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which resulted in the Pentagon pulling the contract to take corrective action on identified flaws.

According to the filing, both companies submitted revised JEDI proposals in May, but they’ll have to revise and submit bids once more because the Pentagon intends to issue another amendment to the JEDI solicitation by June 22.

“DoD continues to evaluate the offerors’ revised proposals, and more time is required to complete this process,” attorneys for the Defense Department said in the filing. “DoD now anticipates that another solicitation amendment will be necessary, and additional limited proposal revisions will be permitted.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2020/06/pentagon-says-it-needs-more-time-fixing-jedi-contract/166292/

May 11, 2020 By cs

Amazon files another protest over JEDI contract

Amazon Web Services filed an agency protest with the Defense Department last week seeking what the company said was clarification over ambiguous pricing requirements in the amended JEDI solicitation.

The move comes as AWS’ case in federal court is on hold after a judge ordered the Defense Department to take corrective action to fix parts of the contract the Pentagon agreed were flawed when it made the award to Microsoft in last October.

In a statement regarding the protest, which is confidential, an AWS spokesperson told Nextgov the company took action only after the Defense Department refused to answer questions over multiple correspondences.

“AWS is committed to ensuring it receives a fair and objective review on an award decision that the Court found to be flawed. AWS repeatedly sought clarity from the DoD around ambiguous aspects of the amended solicitation and the DoD refused to answer our questions,” an AWS spokesperson said. “We simply want to ensure a common understanding of the DoD’s requirements and eliminate ambiguity that could impact a fair evaluation.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/05/amazon-files-another-protest-over-jedi-contract/165243/

The decision follows a months-long legal challenge filed by Amazon Web Services.

The second and more arduous deadline for agencies and vendors to ensure they are no longer using certain Chinese made telecommunications products and services is here, and few are happy about it.

The Defense Department says it wants to further discuss Microsoft’s and Amazon Web Services’ pricing.

The JEDI contract will not be awarded until at least August.

Amazon Web Services filed an agency protest with the Defense Department last week seeking what the company said was clarification over ambiguous pricing requirements in the amended JEDI solicitation.

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