US media reports said the contract valued at $10 billion is
for modernising storage of classified data at the National Security Agency
(NSA).
"Based on the decision we are filing an administrative
protest via the Government Accountability Office," Microsoft said in
response to an AFP inquiry.
"We are exercising our legal rights and will do so
carefully and responsibly."
NSA spokesperson said that it "will respond to the
protest in accordance with appropriate federal regulations," while Amazon
declined to comment.
A post on the Government Accountability Office website
showed that it is considering a protest filed by Microsoft in July concerning
the NSA, but provided no details.
The move came as payback of sorts for Amazon successfully
protesting a different $10 billion cloud computing contract that had been
awarded to Microsoft.
The Pentagon in July scrapped the deal, known as the Joint
Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract, sidestepping a bitter
dispute between Amazon and Microsoft over allegations of political bias that
swayed the bidding.
Microsoft in late 2019 won the JEDI contract, sparking a
challenge by Amazon on grounds that then president Donald Trump may have
improperly influenced the outcome.
Amazon alleged it was shut out of the deal because of what
it called Trump's vendetta against the company and its chief executive Jeff
Bezos.