Amazon CIA cloud row: US judge slaps down IBM as 'manipulative', inferior

The United States Court of Federal Claims has dished the dirt on why IBM lost out on a strategically crucial CIA cloud contract to Amazon Web Services, and this dirt is pungent. A court opinion [PDF] published today revealed why the US government picked Amazon over IBM for a $600m CIA cloud, why it felt IBM's protest was on …

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't understand.

IBM Power 7 kit is awesome, and they are already peppered throughout the US government. Not that I would know anything about that....

[Gordon 10]

Re: I don't understand.

And this is relevant to the article because?

[I am David Jones]

What planet am I on?

One where a losing bidder's mistake ("misunderstanding the requirements") can lead to the whole tendering process being called into question?

One where bidders deliver "guaranteed minimum prices"?

OK, I have never been anywhere near any tendering processes, big or small, but WTF???

[John Smith 19]

Can't see this happening in the UK..

High court judge calling out one of "The Usual Suspects (TM)" as a bunch of liars whose long game was to deliberately screw up the bid and then b**ch about it in court.

Now a few more cases like this......

[btrower]

Human Decency 'out of scope'.

Did anybody, during the course of this bidding war over who gets to sell the gas and the ovens, table the notion that perhaps we should not be doing it at all. That would save a lot more and would be dead easy to evaluate.

We all, as G7 citizens, are paying for this nonsense, both in dollars and in lost freedoms. I really do not think we are getting our money's worth. I know we are not getting a good deal on that freedom thingy.

[Don Jefe]

Merit?

Large US contracts are never awarded on merit alone; tricks and smoke and mirrors is how the game is played. Well, that and confirming with policies. The govt lead will straight up to you how your bid needs to be positioned to get the deal. The price isn't the main factor and only comes into play if all the other bids are equal, but that rarely ever happens.

Sub-contracts are, strangely, usually a much cleaner and merit based thing. There it's a business decision for all parties, not a career step for a government bureaucrat and/or political capital. There's a lot less sketchy bullshit involved when it's just money.

[Destroy All Monsters]

Standard agressive IBM behaviour

While I haven't met the gentlemen in court, I do remember a large project from 10 years ago where the Thing Delivered was not at all the Thing Promised to get Competitors Thrown Out. That and a friendly ear in the boardroom. "You can rely on IBM, can't you?"

You face when "This was not included in the overall price ... we will bring in our consultants ... for a fee."

okay.jpg

It's interesting how IBM picked Amazon in the first place. There must be an idealistic young hire in the decision process at CIA. More like this.

[Kevin McMurtrie]

The obvious product

Customer service. No pricing tricks will make somebody sign a long-term contract designed to screw and abuse them. Smoke and mirrors are to be evaluated on their worst-case scenario.

Maybe IBM and Comcast will be hanging out in a bar this weekend, complaining about how much customers suck.

[M7S]

KYC failure on the part of IBM

Did they not realise that the CIA might at least be their equal in the arts of deception? Don't kid a kidder and all that.

Icon, traditional spy wear under the Fedora

[bigtimehustler]

Re: KYC failure on the part of IBM

I was thinking this myself, you don't try to screw a company that probably has access to all your intercepted communications and so knows secretly exactly what your game is! I was going to be trying to screw someone over in a tender process it would not be the CIA, NSA or GCHQ or such like!

[ecofeco]

Nothing short of amazing

This is amazing for the fact that an established and VLC (very large corporation) did not get its way with the government.

Shocking in fact. They must have REALLY pissed someone off.

[Dave Hilling]

Re: Nothing short of amazing

True, but you must consider Amazon too is now considered a VLC with over 100K employees granted much of them in sales fulfillment etc but quite large as well.