Avoid vendor lock-in:

Transcription

1 Avoid vendor lock-in: take the power back

2 Avoid vendor lock-in: take the power back Are you truly in control of your own IT infrastructure? Not if you suffer from vendor lock-in. Here s how to set yourself free. How in control are you when it comes to managing your IT environment? You may feel like you call the shots, but in reality, you may be beholden to someone else s agenda. Some IT vendors have a sneaky way of locking you into technologies and contracts that restrict your options later on. It s called vendor lock-in, it s nasty, and it has to stop. Vendor lock-in happens when a supplier uses proprietary technology and sales practices, tying you into its product line and making it difficult to leave. Back in the days of the mainframe, this was a fact of life, because the same companies that made the hardware also made the operating systems and the applications. They controlled everything. This began to change in the late 1980s, when the open computing movement started. And when Linux and Open Source began in 1992, it revolutionised the way that people thought about IT. Mike Curtis, Executive Director at LinuxIT Today, 47% of local government IT users in the UK cite a lack of supplier dependency as a reason for choosing Open Source Software (OSS). This is the second biggest reason, exceeded only by cost savings (which are a good reason in themselves, and closely connected three quarters of respondents said the cost savings were a benefit). 47% Sadly, though, many still find themselves hogtied by vendors after buying their proprietary technologies, and signing punitive contracts. Here s what s at risk: Data control Some vendors will use proprietary data formats for their software products, making it difficult to export your data to another application should you ever decide to move. 2

3 Pricing control Deal with the wrong vendor especially one that makes its money from selling rather than supporting software and you could find heavy restrictions on software licensing. Many vendors have browbeaten customers with arcane licensing plans that require them to pay complex multiples when using software on more than one CPU. It s ridiculous, and it gets in the way of business. Product control Not providing source code is perhaps one of the biggest dangers for organisations locked into a vendor product. Organisations may badly need specific product features to support their business processes, but a vendor is under no obligation to provide them. Unless you are a large multinational with the financial muscle to influence your vendor, you may have to settle for a merely adequate product. You ll be happy to know that it doesn t have to be this way. You can free yourself from the constraints of vendor lock-in by thinking carefully about your IT strategy and planning it with flexibility in mind. Adopt these tactics when considering your IT vendors and infrastructure. Check vendor integration capabilities Does your vendor play nicely with others? Look for red flags, such as an inability to support standard industry interfaces, or the creation of arcane, complex ecosystems optimised so that the vendor s own products work excellently together. Does the vendor treat other companies product as second-class citizens? Would it be easy to connect another vendor s software or hardware into this infrastructure? Ask these questions now to avoid headaches later. 3

4 Deploy extensible tools Ideally, both the hardware and software products in your infrastructure will be extensible, in ways that you want. This means a healthy community of third-party product and module providers, providing addons and adaptations to the vendor s product. Moreover, it requires a vendor product that is itself extensible. It s no coincidence that 90% of IT users are either already using an open API that enables a product to work with a multitude of others, or plan to do so in the next 6-12 months. Get the code </> One way to ensure that a product is extensible is to go with Open Source code. This enables software developers to tinker with the code, meaning that they can build their own features directly into a product, or more easily create extensions and add-ons that interact closely with the original software. Adopt standard data formats Using software products that support common data formats isn t enough. Some of the most common data formats in existence are proprietary, and owned by private companies who could change the rules at any time (and previously have). To be safe, use software that supports open data formats that aren t owned by any individual company, but are instead owned and supported by the community. The same goes for communication and storage formats used by hardware. Many companies may choose to trade away autonomy for promises of stellar performance from vendors, buying into obscure, closed communication protocols in the hope of slashing latency. That s all very well until you build your empire on them, and they summarily change the rules. This is why 73% of organisations interested in OSS are considering OpenStack infrastructures. 4

5 Structure your contract Avoiding vendor lock-in isn t just about technology. It s also about relationships. Explore your contract with the vendor to see how equitable they are being. Look for restrictions. It may try to stop you running competitive software in your infrastructure, for example. It may omit a clause allowing for a frequent and regular contract review. All of these things will lock you into a relationship with them, even if it happens to go sour. Taking an open approach to IT can bring you a number of significant benefits, but perhaps the biggest is portability. Organisations these days need to think on their feet, and IT has to be agile. If business changes demand that you make significant alterations to your IT infrastructure or service levels, you may need to move from one product to another, or expand your system using another vendor s hardware or software. Or perhaps budgetary requirements mean that you don t want to spend another 2000 per CPU on a proprietary database product as you begin to build a private Cloud. Open Source enables you to move between vendors as necessary, putting you back in the driver s seat. For its breakneck technological development, there s a lot of inertia in the IT sector. OSS is over 20 years old, but it took a few years for the tide to turn. Now, 83% of organisations are running Linux somewhere in their infrastructure. Over one in four are using it as a top server platform in their organisation. 83% If you re still struggling under the shackles of oppressive proprietary technology, and swingeing licenses, maybe it s time to consider a change. It s 2013, and time to set yourself free. 5

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