Big Blue withdraws its bid to run the US spy agency's private cloud, ceding to Amazon, which originally won the contract. October 30, 2013 8:51 AM PDT Amazon has (finally) secured a $600 million contract to power a U.S. spy agency's secret cloud, leaving IBM limping away from the contested deal. On Wednesday, Big Blue withdrew its protest to power the private cloud-based US Central Intelligence Agency project, ceding to Amazon Web Services. Amazon was awarded the contract earlier this year, but IBM filed with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) in an effort to be granted the contract for itself -- a process not too uncommon in a highly lucrative business space. The protest was upheld, forcing the secret intelligence agency to throw open the contract rebidding process. Amazon subsequently complained in a US court to prevent its cloud rival from snapping up the contract from its hands, which resulted in a federal judge striking down IBM's objections earlier this month. That action led to the company withdrawing its complaint altogether. The Seattle, Wash.-based company told CNET at the time: "We are pleased with the court's decision and look forward to resuming our work on this important contract with our customer." Related stories NSA, CIA spy on German officials from US embassy -- report Amazon wins key ruling over IBM in CIA cloud contract battle Leaked documents detail broad reach of US cyberoperations While we are aware of the project, details relating to the "private cloud" are believed to be classified. The CIA declined to comment on the earlier reports. The agency "does not publicly disclose details of our contracts, the identities of our contractors, the contract values, or the scope of work," according to a spokesperson. We've put in questions to Amazon in regard to IBM's withdrawing from the bid, but did not hear back at the time of writing. (via FCW) This story originally appeared as "IBM bails on $600M CIA cloud deal, lets Amazon have it" on ZDNet.
Big Blue withdraws its bid to run the US spy agency's private cloud, ceding to Amazon, which originally won the contract.
Amazon has (finally) secured a $600 million contract to power a U.S. spy agency's secret cloud, leaving IBM limping away from the contested deal.
On Wednesday, Big Blue withdrew its protest to power the private cloud-based US Central Intelligence Agency project, ceding to Amazon Web Services.
Amazon was awarded the contract earlier this year, but IBM filed with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) in an effort to be granted the contract for itself -- a process not too uncommon in a highly lucrative business space.
The protest was upheld, forcing the secret intelligence agency to throw open the contract rebidding process.
Amazon subsequently complained in a US court to prevent its cloud rival from snapping up the contract from its hands, which resulted in a federal judge striking down IBM's objections earlier this month. That action led to the company withdrawing its complaint altogether.
The Seattle, Wash.-based company told CNET at the time: "We are pleased with the court's decision and look forward to resuming our work on this important contract with our customer."
Related stories
- NSA, CIA spy on German officials from US embassy -- report
- Amazon wins key ruling over IBM in CIA cloud contract battle
- Leaked documents detail broad reach of US cyberoperations
While we are aware of the project, details relating to the "private cloud" are believed to be classified.
The CIA declined to comment on the earlier reports. The agency "does not publicly disclose details of our contracts, the identities of our contractors, the contract values, or the scope of work," according to a spokesperson.
We've put in questions to Amazon in regard to IBM's withdrawing from the bid, but did not hear back at the time of writing.
(via FCW)
This story originally appeared as "IBM bails on $600M CIA cloud deal, lets Amazon have it" on ZDNet.
