Amazon Web Services has won a legal ruling that allows it to retain its $600 million contract with the CIA after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) formally recognized a protest by IBM about the awarding of the contract to AWS. Judge Thomas Wheeler of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled in favor of Amazon Web Services, which protested the necessity of a response from the CIA as a result of the GAO’s recommendation. The decision represents a huge victory for Amazon Web Services as it attempts to consolidate its early traction in the lucrative government cloud market. Meanwhile, IBM noted that it intends to appeal the decision by issuing the following statement:
We are disappointed with the ruling from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, reversing the GAO’s recommendation to reopen the competition and correct flaws in the bidding process. IBM plans to appeal this decision. This court decision seems especially inappropriate in light of the current times, since IBM’s bid was superior in many ways, including being substantially more cost-effective. In addition, IBM has for decades supplied the government with proven mission-critical operations. The company remains committed to provide secure, reliable and robust cloud solutions to federal agencies.
Amazon Web Services declined to comment on the decision specific to Amazon Web Services Inc vs United States, Case No. 13-00506, U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
Cloud Computing Today 
Well, you can smell the desperation in IBM’s comment on the court’s ruling. Imagine that, after decades of loyal service to the government, IBM is not being selected for a juicy $600M cloud services contract. Doesn’t IBM just deserve this because they are IBM and AWS is just some “bookseller” who has grown to be the largest provider of cloud computing services. Seriously, I have a lot of respect for IBM. The company does basic research and a lot of interesting projects, but whining in public about losing in court is not very flattering. I don’t deny them the right to appeal the court’s decision, but claiming they “deserve” the contract after decades of service is an embarrassing thing to have to bring up. IBM needs to build a better cloud and going out and buying SoftLayer was taking the easy way out.