The Hidden Costs of Vendor Lock-In: Why Open Source Values Matter

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At first, having a single vendor sounds appealing. It may sound convenient to have only one vendor that is a one-stop shop for everything you need.

However, the hidden costs quickly start to creep in. Once companies start experiencing issues, it’s usually too late to switch to a different service provider. Diversifying vendors suddenly gets costly and risky, and there’s little to do about it because you signed contracts. This situation, called vendor lock-in, is prevalent across the entire IT industry. Here are the hidden costs of vendor lock-in — and why open source values are the antidote.

 

The Financial and Operational Costs of Vendor Lock-In

 Vendor lock-in costs companies in many ways. Some of those costs start immediately, as it can be expensive to migrate to a new platform. 

However, many costs are operational rather than financial. You may be stuck with a vendor that essentially keeps you captive to their decisions and forces you to stay in line with their technology roadmap. If your vendor doesn’t offer the capabilities you’re looking for, you can run up against strategic limits and stifled innovations. Companies that are dependent on a restrictive vendor’s technology can experience strategic limits and stifled innovation because their provider doesn’t offer the necessary capabilities. Vendor lock-in means reduced flexibility to adopt new technologies or scale operations, making it difficult to be competitive and hard to stay compliant if regulatory laws change. 

Compatibility issues may arise, too. You may find later your vendor isn’t compatible with all your APIs and other existing infrastructure components. Sometimes a vendor may cause data portability issues as well. 

Additionally, there’s hefty risk involved. If you’re using only one vendor, you are dependent on them. If the vendor experiences downtime or security issues, your entire organization is affected. After being with a vendor for a while, there’s also the risk that they will increase their costs or the quality of their service may decline. Their technology roadmap may not keep up with industry innovations or may be slow to fix issues. 

At that point, companies have a difficult choice: either stay with a vendor that isn’t supporting your goals, or undergo the massive (and often expensive) hassle of switching vendors. Switching vendors often means service disruptions, complex data transfers, and reskilling employees on the new platform. 

At SUSE, we make sure you never have to make that difficult choice. SUSE is committed to open source principles, ensuring customer freedom and choice. We intentionally avoid restrictive practices so you can adapt to trends, incorporate new technologies and chart your own roadmap.

 

What Happened to Locked-In Customers When CentOS 7 Hit EOL

 One major example of the dangers posed by vendor lock-in practices is the CentOS 7 end of life. CentOS 7 reached its end of life (EOL) on June 30, 2024, and no longer receives official updates, patches or support. For companies that relied on CentOS 7, this represented a major shake-up to their IT planning.

Some companies coped by migrating their systems to alternative Linux distributions. However, all migrations come with the risks of downtime, possible security breaches and potential compatibility issues, not to mention the time-related costs of employees adjusting to the new system. 

Other companies chose to stick with CentOS 7. Without official support, CentOS 7 systems are at risk for security vulnerabilities and operational issues. 

For many, this seemed less like a transition and more like an ultimatum. IT teams weren’t just trying to keep systems running—they were fighting to regain control over their technology roadmaps.

This signaled a broader shift in the open source landscape, one where the spirit of community-driven collaboration is increasingly at odds with the realities of commercial strategies.

CentOS’s end-of-life serves as a reminder of the values that have always defined open source. Collaboration, accessibility and shared innovation aren’t abstract ideals—they are the foundation of a thriving ecosystem.

 

Why SUSE Supports Open Source as the Antidote to Vendor Lock-In

Illustration representing collaboration, a key value of open source

SUSE is dedicated to open source values. Our commitment is evident in the solutions we offer, the Linux distributions we maintain and the communities we manage. You can read our full Open Source Policy, but in short, we support open source adoption because it gives developers the freedom to access, modify and distribute software openly so they can run their systems in the best ways possible. 

We see vendor lock-in as being contrary to the open source spirit. We emphasize security and customer choice, and vendor lock-in hampers both. Unfortunately, many providers are moving toward closed-off models, limiting flexibility and forcing organizations into vendor lock-in. 

As a solution to those challenges, SUSE Multi-Linux Support empowers you to take control of your IT strategy. SUSE Multi-Linux Support enables enterprises to maintain their existing CentOS and RHEL Linux environments — no migration required. You can even keep using distributions that are past end-of-life, like CentOS 7. 

SUSE Multi-Linux Support simplifies management of your complex IT infrastructure so you can keep choosing the tools that work best for you. No matter how diverse your Linux distributions are, we provide you with seamless patches, maintenance and consistent support across your entire environment. With SUSE, there’s no need to abandon legacy systems prematurely or compromise on flexibility — your IT strategy stays in your hands.

To avoid the pitfalls of vendor lock-in, consider using SUSE Multi-Linux Support. In line with our open source values, you can keep the vendors and distros you rely on with flexibility and interoperability while still enjoying the highest quality support and security. Learn more about SUSE Multi-Linux Support

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Michall Laymon Michall Laymon is an accomplished technology and business leader with a proven track record of sales, partnership development, and customer success. With an MBA from Texas State University, she has leveraged her diverse skill set to drive growth and innovation across roles at SUSE, Dell Technologies, and Amazon Web Services. As The Global Program Manager for Competitive Strategy at SUSE, Michall guides strategic initiatives and product launches and excels at herding cats to foster cross-department collaborations and achieve impactful outcomes.