"Vendor or supplier lock-in has been a longstanding topic of discussion, as far back as my first days in IT all the way back in 2002, and probably before. It was a common complaint of many large enterprises who felt penalised by multi-year managed service contracts that didn't quite deliver on all the things they were promised, yet had no real means to do anything about it."
"Platformisation faces the same challenges, where financial efficiencies are weighed against functional and innovation limitations. Having worked for a hyperscale cloud company previously, the general consensus was 'multi-cloud lowers capabilities to the lowest common denominator', while customers complained 'make it easier for us to do multi-cloud'."
"Open standards are the common language that allow different software systems, hardware, and platforms to talk to one another without needing a translator. They are the antithesis of vendor lock-in and are critical for cross-platform integration."
Vendor lock-in has persisted since the early 2000s, with enterprises trapped in restrictive contracts lacking promised capabilities. This problem intensified during hyperscale cloud adoption, where customers faced ecosystem limitations despite wanting multi-cloud flexibility. Platformization presents similar tensions: while single-vendor solutions offer efficiency, they restrict functionality and innovation. Cloud providers historically resisted multi-cloud approaches, arguing it reduces capabilities to the lowest common denominator, yet customers demanded easier multi-cloud adoption. Open standards emerge as the critical solution, functioning as a common language enabling different systems and platforms to communicate seamlessly without vendor dependencies, addressing the fundamental conflict between operational efficiency and functional freedom.
Read at ComputerWeekly.com
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