GLOSSARY

The condition in which switching from a provider, platform, or product becomes disproportionately difficult or costly because of technical, contractual, data, or operational dependencies.

Understanding lock-in supports sourcing, architecture, continuity, and negotiation decisions. Some dependency may be justified by faster delivery or superior capability, but it should be accepted consciously.

Before choosing a cloud data platform, an organisation tests data export, documents replacement options, negotiates termination support, and isolates proprietary services behind interfaces.

Avoiding all lock-in can increase complexity and prevent use of valuable managed services. Open standards reduce some barriers but do not eliminate migration cost, operational knowledge, or contractual dependency.

Lock-in can result from proprietary APIs and formats, data-egress constraints, specialised skills, embedded workflows, licensing terms, custom extensions, and high migration or validation costs. It is a spectrum rather than a binary condition.