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General Information
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August 27, 2010
• Vol.32 Issue 18
Page(s) 43 in print issue
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The Cloud: Avoid Vendor Lock-In
Keeping Your Options Open Helps Maintain The Highest Quality Of Service
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 | Key Points
• Vendor lock-in means that a customer is dependent on one vendor for products and services, and the vendors often charge higher prices because they can. Some cloud providers charge transfer costs, which makes it expensive to move significant amounts of data between providers.
• IT managers can diversify their IT infrastructure by relying on a combination of internal software and hardware and the cloud. You don’t have to make significant upfront investments in technology or have an internal IT staff; all of the above lessens the potential for lock-in.
• Hybrid cloud solutions make it easy to get access to your mass data. Hybrid solutions provide a cloud file server combined with the local cloud where a local copy of data is automatically maintained on-premises on commodity hardware. If you want to switch, you can rely on your local copy of the data. |
Being tied to one vendor for specific products and services is sometimes unavoidable in the enterprise. This is also true when it comes to the cloud, particularly cloud storage. Most data center and IT managers are not fond of vendor lock-in, but there are ways to get around it when using cloud applications and services. If you find yourself tied in to one vendor, there are steps you can take to avoid a lock-in.
 Lock-in Reality
Andres Rodriguez, CEO of Nasuni (www.nasuni.com), says enterprises hate vendor lock-inâ€"not only when it comes to the cloud, but also when it comes to anything they have to buy. Rodriguez comments, “Vendor lock-in typically means that the vendors charge higher prices because they can and not because they are necessarily delivering value. Plus, your data is stored in the cloud. It may take a long time to move your data to another cloud provider. Also, some cloud providers have chosen to charge transfer costs, which makes it expensive to move significant amounts of data between providers.”
The entire idea of SaaS (software as a service) is predicated on a “pay-as-you-use” model, says Vineet Jain, CEO of Egnyte (www.egnyte.com). Jain elaborates, “For cloud solutions positioned as SaaS play, this is a core concept. However, there are very few cloud solutions available today that are easy to ‘switch out’ from. Imagine taking your accounts, opportunities, or leads information from a company like Salesforce.com, for example, and transferring to another CRM system—not an easy task.”
According to Mark Goros, CEO at Caringo (www.caringo.com), it is always a good idea to keep any vendor on his toes. “Lock-in means the customer loses his bargaining power,” Goros notes, “and it also means that the customer may not be able to take advantage of a better or newer piece of hardware if the vendor they are locked into does not carry it.” He says it’s always good to use two or more suppliers so you have the best chance of negotiating good prices and maintaining the highest quality of service.
Side Steps
John Sloan, lead research analyst for Info-Tech Research Group, says avoiding vendor lock-in can be difficult for two reasons. Sloan explains, “First, cloud infrastructure as a service in general is not as open as it should be. This will require independent standards for data mobility. VMware President Paul Maritz has called this the ‘Hotel California problem,’ paraphrasing the Eagle’s song lyric ‘you can check in any time you like, but you can never leave.’ Secondly, enterprise storage is already very proprietary. Even though vendors talk about open standards and interoperability, their actions have been to slow progress on this front as much as possible.”
Ray Bahar, vice president of Promise Technology (www.promise.com), says there are ways to avoid vendor lock-in when using cloud applications and services. Bahar notes, “IT managers need to diversify their IT infrastructure by relying on a combination of internal software and hardware and the cloud. Companies no longer have to make significant upfront investments in technology or have an internal IT staff, so that all lessens the potential for lock-in.
Rodriguez agrees that there are ways around lock-in. “The cloud storage gateways are designed to give customers not only choice but practical ways to migrate data between providers,” he says.
In Jain’s opinion, cloud storage solutions that are well-designed to give the user flexibility in switching out need to make it easy to “export” or “download” data. He notes, “Essentially, vendors have to make it extremely easy for the customer to get access to their mass data. In that context, ‘hybrid cloud’ solutions provide a cloud file server combined with the local cloud where a local copy of data is automatically maintained on-premises on commodity hardware. In the event the customer decides to switch, they can do so, since they always had a local copy of the data.”
Direct Steps
In order to protect your enterprise and its investments, Sloan says an enterprise can benefit from the right type of market. “I think that the market needs to mature, and interoperability and mobility standards need to emerge,” he says. “Part of [the] investigation of any cloud service should be to get clear answers to data mobility questions. How can I move data out of the cloud if I want to change vendors? One strategy is also to make sure that local copies of all cloud data are maintained. This ensures that you have access to your data if you want to move it to an alternative cloud vendor.”
In addition, Sloan says that maintaining local copies of data also is insurance against data loss if the cloud vendor becomes unavailable (due to technical problems or business failure). Of course, the paradox here when it comes to storage, he says, is that the cloud can be seen as a means of reducing the storage burden in-house, so by taking this approach, you’re still keeping everything.
Bahar says in any young industry, the development of standards will ultimately help the consumer. “By keeping up on the creation and adoption of standards, IT managers can protect their investment,” he says. “Already there are new standards that have broad industry backing to help normalize the way service-based applications are created. As standards become adopted, that should help establish de facto standards as vendors mature their technologies to take advantage of standards. It’s a bit of a self-fulfilling cycle.” Bahar says as adoption takes place, mobility will be easier, and as mobility is easier, more people will be comfortable adopting cloud technology. 
by Chris A. MacKinnon
True Openness
According to Ray Bahar, vice president of Promise Technology (www.promise.com), there is a continued mandate that IT managers seek vendors whose products are heterogeneous and truly open, thereby being able to interconnect. Bahar says as that notion becomes more prevalent, in part because of the adoption of standards by vendors, the market will expand and more people will take advantage of the benefits inherent in cloud storage. |
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