San Francisco (AFP)

Amazon on Thursday challenged the Pentagon's allocation to Microsoft of a $ 10 billion megacontrol of cloud data storage, for which the online and market-leading e-commerce giant was considered a favorite.

"Many aspects of the contract evaluation process had obvious flaws, errors and unambiguous prejudices, and it is important that these issues be examined and rectified," said an Amazon spokeswoman.

The 10-year Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract aims to modernize all of the US Armed Forces IT systems in an Artificial Intelligence system.

Amazon said it notified a court last week of its intention to challenge the way the tender was managed. The Ministry of Defense maintains that the evaluation was conducted impartially.

The Amazon Web Services (AWS) division dominates the cloud computing industry. In particular, it already provides secure servers to other US government agencies, including the CIA.

"AWS has unique experience and the necessary qualities to provide the US Army with the essential technologies it needs, and we remain committed to supporting the modernization efforts of the Department of Defense," the company said.

- "Send graze Amazon" -

"We believe that it is just as essential for our country that the government and its elected leaders allocate contracts in an objective manner and without political influence," the spokesman added.

The Pentagon announced in August the postponement of its call for tenders pending the green light of the new Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper.

It has been named by President Donald Trump, who is in bad terms with Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos, who is also the owner of the Washington Post, a target of violent criticism by the Republican billionaire.

According to James Mattis, former US Secretary of State for Defense Donald Trump had told him to "send graze Amazon" during a discussion on this contract.

These remarks were reported by Guy Snodgrass, a close friend of James Mattis, in a book published in October. James Mattis stepped down in December 2018, criticizing Donald Trump's diplomatic strategy.

Last July, Donald Trump told a press conference that he had asked advisors to investigate the JEDI contract, saying competing companies had a hard time with Amazon.

"I receive considerable complaints about this contract with the Pentagon and Amazon ... They say there are problems with the competition," he said.

Microsoft did not respond to AFP's requests on Thursday night.

- "Black eye" -

This contract could have a profound impact on the rapidly growing market for remote computing services.

In the third quarter of 2019, the global cloud services market was $ 27.5 billion, 37 percent more than a year ago, according to the Canalys consulting and research firm.

Amazon Web Services accounted for 33% of this market, followed by Microsoft Azure (14.5%) and Google Cloud (5.6%).

"But the growth of AWS is slowing down," notes Canalys, "while Azure has grown much faster, by 59 percent in one year."

Amazon's decision to challenge the attribution "will make noise and lead to delays for this contract," says Daniel Ives. But this Wedbush analyst does not think the contract can change hands at this point.

"Microsoft will retain the title of winner of this battle hard for a year, and it will remain a black eye for Amazon and (his boss) Bezos," he said.

This contract "changes the game in favor of Microsoft with a ripple effect for years," said the analyst, who believes that the group of Satya Nadella is now well positioned to win a larger share than Amazon "the next trillion dollars that should be spent in the cloud for the next ten years. "

The two rivals have not finished fighting for both private and public contracts. Daniel Ives estimates the cumulative value of future opportunities in cloud services for the US government at $ 100 billion.

© 2019 AFP