Answer these questions before you opt for a costly & heavy vendor solution..for your IT function..

• Do you really need every feature provided in the vendor solution?

• Are you using a mission critical system and vendor is providing quick and accurate resolution?

• Are your applications requiring complex to very complex logic?

• How much business risk does the deployed functionality cover, what's the risk factor quotient? 

• How much risk to cost factor is attained by spending the amount on the solution being considered?

• Is there an open source solution available for the same functionality, is that scalable for your needs?

• Down time-line(3-5 yrs) what the returns to investment ratio for a costly vendor solution compared to the open source solution?

• What is the flexibility to change ratio on the vendor to open source solution?

For most of the organisations except the few 5-10%, the answers are simple & straight forward and so is the solution - aiming to give a flexible option at little to no cost,  the question is - are you spending more time, money and energy on a vendor lock-in which is slowing down the progress of your product in the rapidly evolving world.

Well, firms like Apple took a decision to make sure they have more flexibility and can change quicker by choosing for an in-house product which scales according to company needs (like they opted for their own processor)

It might be time others might want to follow.