Oracle puts up early protest fight for $427M storage contract

Oracle Corp. has filed a pre-award protest of a contract to provide the Defense Department with on-demand storage infrastructure services.

The contract, known as Enterprise Storage Services II, is in the source selection phase, and the incumbent contractor is VION Corp.

While there is no visibility into Oracle’s grounds for the pre-award protest, the action could delay the awarding of the contract, which is expected in July, according to Deltek.

While the protest is pending at the Government Accountability Office, Defense Information Systems Agency cannot make an award. It can, however, continue to go through its evaluation process.

The protest by Oracle was filed June 25, and the due date for a GAO decision is Oct. 3.

According to documents posted on FedBizOpps, DISA is looking for a contractor to provide storage services on a “utility contract concept.”

In other words, a consumption-based approach.

The contractor will own the hardware, software, maintenance and licensing, but the equipment and work will take place at a variety of DISA locations in the United States and outside the United States.

In essence, the contractor will be building a private cloud for DISA.

DISA will procure services through a call order process, and the contractor will have 24 hours to process the order and 30 days to deliver. The government pays on an as-used basis.

The contractor also will need a process for deactivating services and, if necessary, removing equipment from the DISA locations.

DISA expects the contract to have a four-year base and two one-year options. The contract has a ceiling of $427 million.