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Cloud Computing · Foundational

Vendor Lock-In

Dependence on a provider's proprietary services or formats that makes switching providers costly or difficult.

Definition

Vendor lock-in arises from proprietary APIs, managed services without equivalents elsewhere, data gravity and egress costs, and contractual terms. Mitigations include open standards, containers, portable data formats, abstraction layers and exit planning, though these can reduce the benefit of managed services.

Example

An application deeply integrated with a provider-specific NoSQL database requires a rewrite to move elsewhere.

Exam tip

Portability and interoperability are the CCSP terms for reducing lock-in; a documented exit strategy is the governance control.

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