"DOD consistently and repeatedly made prejudicial errors, at every step along the way, that systematically favored Microsoft and harmed AWS," the company writes in its redacted protest.

"I think if you do a truly objective, detailed, apples-to-apples comparison of the platforms, you don't end up in the spot where that decision is made," Andy Jassy said of JEDI's award to Microsoft.

It appears potential political influence will be at the center of Amazon's argument.

The company submitted a pre-filing notice with the Court of Federal Claims last Friday, according to an AWS spokesperson.

Oracle is pushing ahead with its argument that the single-award format of the contract led to gate criteria that were "prejudicial."

It all depends on the quality of the debriefing the Pentagon gives and whether AWS wants to risk damaging its relationship with a customer as big as the DOD, sources told FedScoop.