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Google hasn’t taken the loss of federal cloud computing contracts to Microsoft lying down. When the Department of the Interior awarded its cloud email contract to Microsoft and its partner Softchoice, Google sued claiming the contract requirements were overly restrictive. A federal judge is inclined to agree.

According to Bloomberg, Judge Susan Braden plans to issue a ruling next week that will find the Interior Department crafted service requirements so restrictive that only Microsoft could meet the requirements. The ruling may include the appointment of an independent expert to determine if Google’s cloud email services do meet the government’s performance and security requirements.

Braden’s ruling is significant because it affects not only Google and Microsoft, but their respective partners. Microsoft isn’t party to the Google lawsuit against the Interior Department, but Microsoft’s partner Softchoice is. And this isn’t the only lawsuit over the federal cloud, and partners are being used as proxies because vendors cannot sell directly to the federal government under procurement rules. Google’s partner in the deal is Onix Networking.

The stakes are high. The federal government plans to shift more than one-quarter of its IT spending – nearly $20 billion annually – to cloud services in an effort to save money. The Interior contract is worth $59.3 million.

Google has already won several high profile federal cloud contracts, including a deal to convert 15,000 General Services Administration workers to Google Apps for Government.

While Braden’s ruling is a victory for Google, the win may be short lived.

In the legal volleys between Microsoft and Google over the federal cloud, it came to light that Google Apps for Government doesn’t meet all of the data safeguard requirements under the Federal Information Security Management (FISMA) Act. In April, this same legal battle uncovered Google marketing of two services to the government that it claimed were secure and FISMA compliant — but only one of the versions actually passed FISMA muster.

>> CHECK OUT: ‘Feds Doubt Google Security Certification’

Exposing the Google service to an independent expert may find the Interior Department’s contract criteria were too restrictive. However, it may also find that Google didn’t meet the government’s performance and security requirements.

Google is already dealing with a cloud email fiasco on the municipal level. It and its partner, CSC, beat Microsoft for the contract to convert 35,000 city of Los Angeles employees from Novell Groupware to Google Apps. But the migration has gone horribly wrong and only about half of the city workers have changed over. Reports indicate the city’s massive police department may never convert because Google App’s doesn’t meet security and data protection requirements.

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Lawrence M. Walsh is CEO and president of The 2112 Group, a technology business advisory service that specializes in optimizing indirect channels and partner relationships. He’s also the executive director of the Channel Vanguard Council. He is the former publisher of Channel Insider and editor of VARBusiness Magazine. You can reach him at lmwalsh@the2112group.com.

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Larry Walsh:@lmwalsh2112| Channelnomics: @channelnomics