What is Vendor Lock-In?
What is Vendor Lock-In?When a company becomes too reliant upon a single vendor or solution, they can find themselves victims of vendor lock-in.
Vendor lock-in is a common problem for companies that use proprietary software, databases, or platforms. Issues arise when businesses find themselves unable to move to an alternative vendor without substantial expense or business disruption.
Growing organizations are especially vulnerable to vendor lock-in, because the out-of-the-box solutions that made sense for them when they started out no longer work for them as their business expands.
Many companies are actively trying to reduce their risk of vendor lock-in. One solution is switching to open source software.
In fact, in a recent Percona open source database survey, vendor lock-in was one of the main reasons cited by companies for adopting more open source technologies:
- Cost savings
- Avoiding vendor lock-in
- Community
- Ease of use
- Security
Open Source Technology Advantages
Our survey revealed that 62% of respondents use open source software to avoid vendor lock-in. Due to the nature of the development model, with its focus on open standards, open source software vendor lock-in is highly improbable.
The strongest motivation to move to open source is cost savings — 79% of survey respondents state this is a major consideration. Choosing the right open source software can give you access to enterprise-level features, without the associated price-tag.
Rather than being locked into a proprietary vendor and trapped into paying high license fees, many companies discover they can get the same results, response, and reliability with open source solutions.
Examine the Impact of Vendor Lock-In on Your Business
Our latest white paper looks at the benefits and pitfalls of vendor lock-in, and the negative impact it can have on your business.
We trace the roots of vendor lock-in and examine how it has evolved alongside changing technology and software. We also look at the rise of the Cloud and how everything as a service (XaaS) has changed the role of proprietary vendors, ushering in new vendor lock-in risks.
The move towards using open source software as a viable alternative to traditional proprietary software is important. Our white paper discusses how open source actively deters vendor lock-in and encourages technological agility, giving businesses the ability to try new and innovative software options.
Un-Biased Open Source Solutions
Learn how Percona can help you avoid the high cost of vendor lock-in. Find out how our experienced support and consulting teams can help you migrate from proprietary vendors to open source software, and help you pick the database, platform, and solution that best suits your needs, without bias or lock-in.
