The concerns which individuals and organizations are having towards the public cloud are shifting. Where in previous years data security and costs were a major concern – there’s a new fear: Vendor Lock-in.
First, we need to analyze: what is vendor lock-in, and how it affects you. Then we can look at how to combat the problem, and what are your options moving forward.
What is Vendor Lock-In?
A Vendor Lock-In describes a scenario in which a consumer is totally dependent on a vendor for products and services. They are unable to use another vendor (without substantial switching costs) or being unable to transfer your data effectively.
Public cloud hosts which are fuelling this new concern most include Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. These hosting options create applications developed solely for their platform. Applications can only be used with a Microsoft hosting platform. If you’re trying to use this information or transfer data; there will often be incompatibility issues.
But how does this affect consumers?
How Vendor Lock-In affects you
But, you may ask, how does this affect me? After all, I have mobiles, desktops, and even tablet PC’s all accessing our data on a cloud hosting service.
This may be true. But, just because multiple end users can access the information in the cloud; it doesn’t mean that a single cloud hosting vendor is not being used. In fact, it often proves the opposite.
For example, without proper definitions for import and export formats, a set of data from one service implementation will probably be meaningless when imported into another cloud service.
What is a proprietary data format?
This is when an organization (like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google) have a specific code/format for applications which run on their specific cloud platform. These are non-transferable. This proprietary format may be sold as an advantage for the consumer, but it actually makes it more difficult for a consumer to switch to another cloud provider. It does so by making it more difficult, or entirely impossible, for the consumer to be able to migrate data (and applications) to other vendors; if/when necessary.
Another problem that contributes to cloud hosting lock-in, is being at the mercy of your provider. As a consumer, you’re vulnerable to whatever changes are made to your software and hosting applications. Often, you will have little or no control over these changes – as it’s vital to stay current with your vendor’s updates for guaranteed security and more.
Many times, a consumer won’t have a problem with Vendor Lock-In until they reach a point where they wish to change cloud providers. Other instances may include integrating services from various providers; not just one.
This is when the consumer will realize that they’re unable to move applications or data across different cloud services. Why? This is mainly because the semantics of resources and services of cloud providers do not match each other. Or they cannot communicate with each other, or perhaps not communicate well.
Diversity
This diversity between cloud semantics and API’s creates technical incompatibility. This then leads to interoperability and portability challenges. In other words, when your different platforms cannot communicate effectively; you will have a problem with accessing and sharing information – even within your organization. A definite problem.
Another issue which can arise with Vendor Lock-In is the hefty fees to ‘break out’ of the contract and change vendor providers. Most organizations do not realize this is a problem until it’s too late.
Sometimes the only thing that remains is the hefty price tag to ‘exit’. Perhaps with their current vendor, there are no applications to expand or move in a direction vital for the future of their organization. Or due to a merger, they have no choice but to change vendor providers.
This then has the flow on effects of transmitting the data from one vendor provider to another. All these things and more contribute to a problem with Vendor Lock-In.
But how can consumers combat vendor lock-in?
How to Avoid Vendor Lock-in when choosing a hosting provider
So with all these obvious problems discussed with Vendor Lock-In; are there any solutions, or alternatives?
Yes, but what you choose for your organization, will depend greatly on your needs. Never underestimate the importance of the following points:
One way to avoid vendor lock-in is to stay away from contracts and stick to billing plans that are month to month. These make for an easier exit if you have issues with your vendor.
Below are a few alternatives that would be worth considering for your organization.
Ensure that you need a cloud-based hosting vendor.
There are other options out there. For
Private cloud hosting is another alternative.
This offers the agility and proficiency of a public cloud hosting system. But it comes with the security of a single-tenant, and dedicated environment.
The features and benefits of private clouds are:
- Higher Security & Privacy,
- More Control,
- Cost & Energy Efficiency,
- Improved Reliability,
- And Cloud Bursting.
A number of options of private cloud hosting can be found here.
Dedicated servers deliver reliable and powerful server hardware. This is essential for your organizations’ critical applications. They have bursting speeds; and full hardware resources that are solely dedicated to your server tasks and performances. Learn more here.
As technology continues to move forward, it can sometimes be difficult to keep up; but not impossible. Remember: if making these decisions on behalf of your organization is beyond your expertise – do not fear. There are plenty of pros out there who are willing to assist and walk you through the next phase of technology for your organization.
Whatever option your organization decides to go with – investigate, evaluate, and assess. We cannot reiterate this enough. Your organizations’ needs will continue to change as technology evolves – so be vigilant. If you are, you will have a hosting option that best suits your needs as your organization advances – without the headaches of Vendor Lock-In.
ServerPronto offers the best affordable hosting service in all dedicated server packages.
Comments are closed.