Perspecta protests $7.6B cloud services contract

By Justin Doubleday / September 10, 2019 at 1:11 PM

Perspecta is protesting the Defense Department and General Services Administration's decision to award General Dynamics Information Technology a potential $7.6 billion cloud services contract.

On Sept. 9, Perspecta filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office challenging the award of the Defense Enterprise Office Solutions Blanket Purchasing Agreement to GDIT, according to a notice on GAO's protest docket website. Perspecta did not immediately return emails asking for more information regarding its protest.

GAO has until Dec. 18 to come to a decision.

The Pentagon and GSA awarded General Dynamics the DEOS contract in late August. The BPA provides for collaboration and productivity tools like email, messaging, word processing, file sharing and storage across the DOD enterprise. The Pentagon wants to use the services provided under the DEOS contract to replace legacy office technologies with a "standard cloud-based solution across all military services," according to the government's announcement.

The agreement could last up to 10 years and is worth a maximum of $7.6 billion.

The award is also a boon for Microsoft, as the BPA is "built on" the Microsoft Office 365 platform, according to the announcement.

Microsoft is one of two companies in contention for another massive Pentagon cloud contract, the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract. Amazon Web Services is the other company eligible to win the potential 10-year, $10 billion cloud contract.

However, the JEDI award is being held up by Defense Secretary Mark Esper's review of the contract, as well as a DOD inspector general’s investigation into the program. The JEDI initiative has been plagued by protests and allegations of ethical conflicts.

204776