Take two: Interior to reopen contract for cloud services

The Interior Department will reopen bids to move its 88,000 email users to the cloud.

After a long legal battle, the Interior Department will reopen bidding for a contract to move its 88,000 email users to the cloud, reports NextGov.com.

Interior initially awarded the contract to Microsoft but Google challenged the contract in October 2010, claiming the department's request for quotations was written to exclude the company’s Google Apps services. In January 2011, a federal judge ruled Interior could not award a noncompetitive contract to Microsoft.

In exchange for dismissing Google's challenge, Interior withdrew its original award, reports NextGov. The department released a presolicitation notice, and expects to release a request for proposals around Feb. 7.