#vendor-lock-in

#vendor-lock-in

Given that corporate IT relies heavily on cloud-based infrastructure and services delivered via the public cloud, access to the data held in the cloud is paramount. Should all mission-critical data be held on-premise? What roles should digital sovereignty and digital residency play in a corporate IT strategy? These are among the questions being discussed at Forrester's forthcoming Technology & Innovation Summit in London.

Shortly after Reuters broke the news that Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, had signed a $10 billion, multiyear cloud deal with Google, a CIO friend called me with some questions: "David, should we be doing something like this? Are these mega prepurchase cloud agreements the new table stakes for enterprises?" The question is as pressing as it is complex. My answer, shaped by years of watching and guiding digital transformation, may not be what cloud vendors want you to hear.

The choice between Linux and MacOS isn't hard. If you can answer these questions, you'll know which to choose. Both are outstanding choices and will serve you well. I use both Linux and MacOS. The former is used for everyday tasks, and the latter for video editing and mobile usage (please, someone, create a Linux laptop that is as reliable and similar to a MacBook).

Not to be outdone by the makers of ChatGPT and Claude, who each agreed to sell their services to the government for $1 per agency, Google has agreed to even deeper discount terms, pitching its various government-capable AI products for just $0.47 per agency, valid through 2026. The half-a-buck Google AI deal is part of the General Services Administration's OneGov purchasing strategy that seeks to streamline the purchasing of products for federal agencies.

Multicloud adoption is crucial as up to 89% of organizations leverage multiple cloud providers to meet varied needs by 2025.