Imagine this: Your enterprise IT strategy is running like clockwork, your systems are humming along – and then suddenly, the rules change. Your vendor announces a licensing overhaul. Support contracts get slashed. Costs skyrocket. And just like that, you’re locked into an ecosystem that’s bleeding your IT budget dry.
This familiar pattern has been playing out for years across multiple industries. We’ve seen large-scale acquisitions shake up pricing models, leaving IT teams scrambling to justify unexpected cost increases. We’ve seen vendors make once-accessible platforms more restrictive, forcing enterprises to either absorb higher costs or risk critical operational disruptions. The result? Lock-in practices have become an invisible tax on innovation.
But vendor lock-in as we typically view it isn’t always about proprietary software – sometimes it wears a seemingly more appealing open-source suit. The playbook starts the same way: an attractive offering, compelling support, and promises of innovation. Everything integrates smoothly at first, and soon, your entire ecosystem – software, training, compliance – is built around that single provider.
Then reality sets in: if you want security, if you want updates, you have to go all-in. There’s no middle ground, no hybrid approach – just a binary choice: stay locked in or undertake a painful migration that could disrupt your entire operation.
It’s a version of lock-in that many businesses didn’t see coming. They believed they were choosing open source to avoid dependency, only to find themselves backed into a corner.
But open source doesn’t have to mean lock-in. The best open-source models prioritise interoperability – they don’t force you to use one vendor’s entire stack. They let you manage mixed environments, integrate best-of-breed solutions, and maintain flexibility.
Businesses that can embrace open ecosystems can deploy workloads wherever it makes sense – on-premises, in the cloud, or at the edge – without being tied to a single vendor’s toolkit. They can mix and match technologies, combining different distributions and platforms to create an infrastructure that works best for them.
The reason this is becoming so important is because the stakes are only growing. AI is the next great lock-in battleground, and enterprises that don’t make smart infrastructure choices today could find themselves trapped for the next decade.
Many artificial intelligence (AI) solutions currently on the market are already closed ecosystems. They dictate where data is processed, what tools can be used, and how much enterprises must pay for the privilege. The recent shockwaves from DeepSeek speak volumes about how dramatically this sector is evolving and why businesses shouldn’t be locked into one provider.
Proprietary cloud platforms are making AI workloads increasingly difficult to migrate, forcing companies into a long-term dependency that will only become more costly over time. A locked-in enterprise will always struggle to pivot when new technologies emerge or when industry regulations change. The ability to scale, innovate, and integrate new solutions becomes painfully slow.
More than anything, avoiding lock-in is about retaining control. When enterprises have greater agency over their infrastructure, they set the rules. They choose when and how to upgrade. They decide where to deploy workloads. They dictate their security posture. Handing that power over to a vendor is a risk few businesses can afford to take.
The first step is to challenge the status quo. If a vendor changed its pricing model tomorrow, would your organisation be able to walk away? If the answer is no, then your business is already locked in. The second step is to prioritise open standards. The best way to avoid being cornered is to ensure that your IT stack is built on flexible, interoperable technologies.
Real innovation happens when businesses have the agency to choose the best solutions for their needs, not the ones they’re forced to. Because if you wouldn’t sign a contract that lets someone change the terms whenever they want, why would you do it with your IT infrastructure – the beating heart of your innovation?
Ben Henshall is Australia and New Zealand general manager for open source software provider, SUSE