Amazon Web Services has received a $10 billion cloud computing contract from the National Security Agency, according to a report from Nextgov.
Codenamed “WildandStormy,” the contract is said to be a part of the NSA’s attempts to modernize classified data storage.
Microsoft is challenging the award in a manner similar to the way Amazon challenged the now-defunct $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract. Nextgov reported that Microsoft filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office in July “two weeks after being notified by the NSA that it had selected AWS for the contract.”
The Hill reported that a spokesperson for the NSA confirmed it “recently awarded a contract for cloud computing services to support the Agency,” and that another company bidding for the contract has filed a protest.
Amazon referred all questions about the contract to the NSA public affairs department. We’ve reached out to the NSA and Microsoft for additional comment.
Amazon and Microsoft spent years fighting over the Defense Department’s $10 billion JEDI cloud services contract, with Microsoft eventually winning the bid. The contract was later canceled and parcelled out by the Biden administration.
AWS has won several intelligence community contracts in the past including a $600 million deal with the Central Intelligence Agency in 2013.
UPDATE: A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the contract protest. “Based on the decision we are filing an administrative protest via the Government Accountability Office. We are exercising our legal rights and will do so carefully and responsibly.”
