Why your next cloud bill could be a trap

"A few months ago, I worked with a global manufacturer that considered itself conservative on AI. They focused on stabilizing their ERP migration to the cloud, modernizing a few key customer-facing apps, and tightening security. The CIO's position on generative AI was clear: "We'll get there, but not this year. We're not ready." On paper, they were officially "not doing AI." In reality, they were already deeply involved."

"Their primary cloud provider had quietly integrated AI-native features into the services they were currently using. The search service they adopted for a new customer portal came with semantic and vector modes turned on by default. Their observability platform was now AI-assisted, altering logs and telemetry processing. Even their database service had a new "AI integration" checkbox in the console, which developers began enabling because it appeared useful and was inexpensive to try."

"Six months later, their infrastructure bill had risen sharply, and their architecture had become so integrated with that provider's vector engine and AI tools that shifting away had become dramatically harder. Key data stores were now optimized around that provider's vector engine. Workflows were wired into proprietary AI agents and automation tools. The CIO's team woke up to a hard truth: They had unintentionally become an AI-focused organization, more locked in than ever."

A global manufacturer that considered itself conservative on AI stabilized an ERP migration and modernized apps while officially avoiding generative AI. Cloud provider services had AI-native features enabled: search with semantic and vector modes, AI-assisted observability altering logs and telemetry, and a database 'AI integration' checkbox that developers enabled. Six months later infrastructure costs rose and architecture became tightly coupled to the provider's vector engine and AI tools. Key data stores were optimized for the provider's vector engine and workflows used proprietary agents and automation. The organization unintentionally became AI-focused and faced stronger vendor lock-in.

Read at InfoWorld