Critical analysis of vendor lock-in and its impact on cloud computing migration: a business perspective
Critical analysis of vendor lock-in and its impact on cloud computing migration: a business perspective
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DOI：
10.1186/s13677-016-0054-z
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发表时间：
2016-04-15
影响因子：
4
通讯作者：
Tian, Feng
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Opara-Martins, Justice;Sahandi, Reza;Tian, Feng
由于缺乏标准化，供应商锁定是采用云计算的主要障碍。当前解决供应商锁定问题的解决方案和努力主要是面向技术的。存在有限的研究来分析和强调云环境中供应商锁定问题的复杂性。因此，大多数客户不知道专有标准，这些标准在从供应商那里获取服务时会抑制应用程序的互操作性和可移植性。本文从业务角度对供应商锁定问题进行了批判性分析。本研究采用定性和定量方法进行的一项调查确定了导致锁定情况的主要风险因素。我们对114名参与者的调查分析表明，随着计算资源从内部部署迁移到云端，供应商锁定问题加剧。此外，研究结果强调了云计算中互操作性、可移植性和标准的重要性。针对迁移到云计算时如何避免和减轻锁定风险提出了一些策略。这些战略涉及合同、选择支持标准化格式的供应商以及有关标准数据结构和API的协议、提高对基于云的解决方案之间的共性和依赖性的认识。我们坚信，这些战略的实施具有降低供应商锁定风险的巨大潜力。
Vendor lock-in is a major barrier to the adoption of cloud computing, due to the lack of standardization. Current solutions and efforts tackling the vendor lock-in problem are predominantly technology-oriented. Limited studies exist to analyse and highlight the complexity of vendor lock-in problem in the cloud environment. Consequently, most customers are unaware of proprietary standards which inhibit interoperability and portability of applications when taking services from vendors. This paper provides a critical analysis of the vendor lock-in problem, from a business perspective. A survey based on qualitative and quantitative approaches conducted in this study has identified the main risk factors that give rise to lock-in situations. The analysis of our survey of 114 participants shows that, as computing resources migrate from on-premise to the cloud, the vendor lock-in problem is exacerbated. Furthermore, the findings exemplify the importance of interoperability, portability and standards in cloud computing. A number of strategies are proposed on how to avoid and mitigate lock-in risks when migrating to cloud computing. The strategies relate to contracts, selection of vendors that support standardised formats and protocols regarding standard data structures and APIs, developing awareness of commonalities and dependencies among cloud-based solutions. We strongly believe that the implementation of these strategies has a great potential to reduce the risks of vendor lock-in.