Keep Vendor Lock-In in Mind

Vendor lock-in occurs when a vendor makes it difficult for a company to switch to another provider of cloud computing services, even if the vendor has failed to fulfill the SLA. This lock-in may come about because the vendor is unable to export data completely or because the vendor provides capabilities its competitors do not. But a cloud service provider should make it easy for a company to move to a different provider in the event that the provider fails to meet one or more of the SLA requirements.

In the case of a PaaS or IaaS provider, moving a company’s applications and data should be relatively straightforward. Moving from a SaaS provider, however, may provide to be a more difficult process due to the specific capabilities the vendor provides, upon which the company relies. To reduce the risk of vendor lock-in, many companies look for providers who support “open” solutions, which are built using open software such as Linux, Python, and MySQL.