Post by Ivan Pantić

Responding to a recent post, why do I fear "𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬-𝘪𝘯" by big cloud providers, while I don't fear getting "locked-in" by my choice of an OS, software stack, or a database? It's pretty simple: The difference is in getting locked in by 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲 vs an 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. 𝗖𝗼𝗱𝗲 is predictable. You know it will work the same way today, the next week, and the next year. You might decide to replace it with newer code, or (if open source), take over the maintenance of an abandoned project. But that all happens on your own schedule. You decide when and whether to take the plunge, according to your own business plans, needs and available resources. 𝗢𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, on the other hand, is a living thing. It has its own share-holders, looking to see the revenue numbers go up. It has product managers and sales people, trying to score their next bonus. It has its own internal dramas, product roadmaps, pivots and deprecations. It's not a dead pieces of functionality made to serve you. It has an agenda. And guess what - 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘵. This might work out great. #aws might decide they want to grab more customers next month, and offer free credits and deals. But they also might decide to double the prices. Or kill the service you depend on (hello, #googlecloud). And whether it's good or bad news, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘵. Analyze it. Take advantage of it. Mitigate around it. You had the next month's roadmap all planned up? Too bad buddy, your new roadmap is you responding to whatever your vendor decided to do. Joel Spolsky had an old article where he speculated that churning out new frameworks might be a way for #microsoft to keep their competitors in check. Making them dance to their own tune. Intentional or not, I've certainly seen it happen in one form or another. So go ahead and take advantage of the big providers' offers. Just be aware of what you will be giving up in return. #programming #cloud #cloudcomputing #devops (the post I was referring to: https://lnkd.in/dzyhZfYD)