GAO dismisses IBM protest of Pentagon cloud contract, citing Oracle's case before federal claims court

The Government Accountability Office's comptroller general has dismissed IBM's pre-award protest of a massive Pentagon cloud contract after Oracle brought a similar case before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims last week.

GAO dismissed IBM's protest of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure solicitation "because the matter involved is currently pending before a court of competent jurisdiction," according to the decision. It pointed to Oracle America's suit over the JEDI solicitation, filed in federal claims court last week.

"More specifically, Oracle's complaint before the COFC includes arguments that are the same or similar to assertions presented in IBM's protest to our office," the decision document states. "Accordingly, we view the matter involved in IBM's protest as currently before a court of competent jurisdiction."

GAO had already dismissed Oracle's bid protest of the JEDI solicitation last month. GAO ruled the Defense Department was within its rights to structure the potentially 10-year, $10 billion JEDI contract as a single-award deal and also said Oracle's conflict of interest argument would not be sustained prior to an award.

Both Oracle and IBM are opposed to the Pentagon's single-award strategy, arguing it is flawed and geared toward Amazon Web Services.

"IBM knows what it takes to build a world-class cloud," Sam Gordy, general manager of IBM U.S. Federal, wrote in an Oct. 10 statement. "No business in the world would build a cloud the way JEDI would and then lock into it for a decade. JEDI turns its back on the preferences of Congress and the administration, is a bad use of taxpayer dollars and was written with just one company in mind. America's warfighters deserve better."

Bidding for the JEDI contract closed in October. The Pentagon is expected to make an award in April.