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“Avoid vendor lock-in” is the dominant architectural advice. It’s wrong about half the time. There are situations where picking a stack and committing is the right call.

When lock-in is genuinely a risk

The vendor has clear pricing-power leverage. Your migration cost compounds with time. The vendor’s commercial behavior is hostile. Concentration risk is regulator-relevant.

When lock-in is overrated

Your engineering team is small + your platform sophistication is moderate. The cost of multi-vendor abstractions exceeds the migration cost you might face later. The vendor’s product roadmap aligns with your needs and they have skin in the game.

The decision framework

Three questions: Will I want to leave in 5 years? What does that cost in money + time + risk? What does multi-vendor abstraction cost me today + over the next 5 years? If today’s + accumulating cost of abstraction exceeds the future migration cost, pick a stack.

The “always avoid lock-in” advice is a meme. The real answer is contextual.

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