Recognizing Vendor Lock in and how to avoid it.

Whether you supply information technology, or merely use it, you will benefit from understanding, classifying and measuring switching costs. The “friction-free” economy is a fiction; look for more lock-in, not less, as the information age progresses. Hal Varian 1998

It looks like NetApp is taking lessons from Hal Varian’s playbook-
During the last earnings conference call, Network Appliance’s Chief Executive Dan Warmenhoven said the company is seeing software subscriptions grow and become a larger portion of total revenue. Software subscriptions can “embed the company with customers for years” and provide recurring revenue to boost cash flow, he said.

Click here for a great powerpoint by Hal Varian on Lock in