The Cloud Vendor Lock-In Trap

Every cloud strategy conversation eventually hits the same question: "What about vendor lock-in?" It's treated like a four-letter word, something to avoid at all costs. But here's the uncomfortable truth: vendor lock-in isn't inherently bad. It's a trade-off, and sometimes it's the right trade-off.

The multi-cloud movement has convinced organizations that avoiding lock-in is always the right answer. But the data tells a different story: multi-cloud strategies increase complexity by 3.2x and costs by 18% on average. They require more expertise, more tooling, more operational overhead. For many organizations, the cost of avoiding lock-in exceeds the cost of lock-in itself.

The best cloud strategy depends on your context. Startups and scale-ups benefit from single-cloud: faster development, better optimization, lower costs, simpler operations. Enterprises may need multi-cloud: regulatory requirements, risk mitigation, vendor leverage. But most organizations choose multi-cloud for the wrong reasons: fear of lock-in, without understanding the trade-offs.

Vendor lock-in becomes a problem when you don't understand what you're locking into, when you don't have an exit strategy, or when the vendor relationship becomes adversarial. But when you understand the trade-offs, have a plan, and maintain a healthy vendor relationship, lock-in can be a feature, not a bug.

The organizations that succeed with cloud strategy understand their context. They choose single-cloud when speed and optimization matter most. They choose multi-cloud when risk mitigation and vendor leverage matter most. They don't let fear of lock-in drive decisions—they let business objectives drive decisions.

So before you invest in multi-cloud to avoid lock-in, ask yourself: What problem are we solving? What are the costs? What are the benefits? If you can't answer these questions clearly, you're solving the wrong problem. The question isn't whether to avoid lock-in. It's whether the benefits of avoiding it outweigh the costs for your situation.