Court rejects Oracle's appeal over Pentagon JEDI contract

Sept. 2 (UPI) -- A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected challenges by Oracle Corp. to the Pentagon's JEDI cloud computing contract, potentially worth $10 billion.

The Defense Department is preparing the start of consolidation of its technology programs and its ability to deliver information around the world. A contract known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, was awarded to Microsoft in October 2019.

Microsoft and Amazon Web Services were regarded as leaders for the contract, worth $10 billion to the winner over 10 years.

Oracle argued in court that the Defense Department unfairly and unnecessarily tailored the contract requirements to the advantage of Amazon and Microsoft, and excluding Oracle.

It also alleged that the bidding process was unfairly managed because of conflicts of interest, citing former Pentagon employees hired by Amazon after helping to design the contract specifications.

On Wednesday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a 2019 lower-court ruling that Oracle was not harmed by any errors the Defense Department may have made in developing the contract proposal.

"Notwithstanding the extensive array of claims raised by Oracle, we find no reversible error" in the lower court's decision, Circuit Judge William Bryson wrote for the three-judge panel.

The decision can be seen as a victory for the Pentagon, which has been criticized for its decision to choose just one vendor for the JEDI contract.

A separate vendor-bias lawsuit from Amazon Web Services,still pending, suggests that its bid was unfairly judged because of political and personal conflicts between Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and President Donald Trump.