[ Thanks to Michael
S. Mimoso for this link. ]
“How can I take advantage of the services and products
offered by proprietary vendors without getting ‘locked’
in?“O’Keefe: Design your IT infrastructure so that
you aren’t limited to using hardware or software from a single
vendor. Utilizing Intel hardware with either Windows or Linux,
storage area networks based on Fibre Channel, and standards-driven
storage products can help avoid lock-in.“Milberg: You can take advantage of top
products by not necessarily buying everything that the proprietary
vendor sells. For example, IBM’s middleware product works nicely
with Oracle as its database engine. You can also run WebSphere on
PC platforms as well as RISC machines. I would try to mix things up
where I could, to prevent ‘lock-in.’“Greenblatt: One does not get locked in to a
vendor when they ensure that the vendor utilizes open standards,
and the vendor provides the best possible financial incentive for
the use of the product.“Terpstra: Negotiate a good contract–one that
protects you and your vendor…”