Not too concerned about lock-in, but still concerned…

[#1]

I just saw a post on SiliconANGLE that asks: Are We Too Concerned with Vendor Lock-In? The focus of the article is taking the “high ground” – looking for what actually provides the value the business needs, stating that we need to “keep in mind the real value of software: performance, agility, stability”.

I think everyone but the most purist open source zealot would agree that businesses need to keep their eye on the value ball. It is software that provides that value. On the other hand, numerous times in my career I was dragged off in directions I didn’t really want to go by a vendors change in direction for their product (or when they were snapped up by someone where the relationship was already on-the-rocks). These issues are also important for businesses too. If you rely on too many “features” you can limit your flexibility down the line.

Although being open and standard shouldn’t be the only factor, it may be a decisive one when the open source solution is “good enough”. This dilemma between open and standard is why HP is trying support both open and heterogeneous environments with converged cloud. 

[#2]

These issues are going to be core part of the changing role of the CIO.