Vendor Lock-in & Portability
Lock-in Assessment and Justification
Summary
Lock-in is identified and weighed during technology selection, accepted only where a genuine benefit justifies it, and reassessed when the basis for that decision changes.
Reasoning
Lock-in can increase the cost, time, and disruption involved in changing a technology or provider. Evaluating it before adoption establishes whether a capability's benefit outweighs the resulting loss of choice and replacement effort while alternatives remain available. Defaults and familiarity do not establish that benefit.
A benefit that once justified lock-in can diminish as alternatives improve or a vendor's commercial terms and ability to provide the capability change. Reassessment identifies when the original trade-off no longer supports continued coupling.
Implemented By These Standards
Exit Planning
Summary
The exit path for a costly-to-reverse commitment is assessed before adoption, and the absence of a practical exit is treated as a deliberate risk.
Reasoning
The cost, time, and disruption of leaving a commitment can determine whether a later change remains practical. Considering the exit path before committing exposes those constraints while other options remain available, and identifies a critical dependency without a practical exit as a deliberate risk to future change.
Implemented By These Standards
Vendor Abstraction
Summary
An abstraction shields a system from a vendor-specific dependency where it can do so without adding disproportionate cost or complexity.
Reasoning
Concentrating vendor-specific integration behind a defined interface or adapter limits the parts of a system requiring change when a dependency is replaced. The abstraction improves portability only when its implementation and maintenance costs remain proportionate to the lock-in risk it reduces.
Implemented By These Standards
Data Portability
Summary
Data held by a vendor or platform remains extractable in a usable, non-proprietary format, and that ability is verified periodically.
Reasoning
Replacing a vendor or platform can make retained data inaccessible when its export depends on a proprietary format or an unavailable mechanism. A usable, non-proprietary export preserves that data independently of the system that holds it, while periodic verification detects a loss of portability before migration requires an export.