Which risk concerns ongoing dependence on a vendor's services, leading to costly switching?

Which risk concerns ongoing dependence on a vendor's services, leading to costly switching?

• A. Vendor Lock-out
• B. Vendor Lock-in
• C. Application Transfer Risk
• D. Infrastructure Transfer Risk

Answer: (B)

This question tests vendor lock-in—the risk of becoming dependent on a vendor’s services to the point that switching becomes costly or impractical. When you rely on a vendor’s platform, you often face proprietary data formats, APIs, and tightly integrated services, plus contract terms or exit penalties. Moving away can require data extraction and transformation, re-architecting workflows, retraining staff, and potential downtime, all of which make switching expensive. That ongoing dependence precisely captures why this option is the best fit. The other terms describe different ideas: being denied access or prevented from using a system points to vendor lock-out, which isn’t about the cost of leaving. Application transfer risk and infrastructure transfer risk focus more on the mechanics and challenges of moving applications or infrastructure themselves, rather than the ongoing cost and difficulty created by long-term vendor dependence.

This question tests vendor lock-in—the risk of becoming dependent on a vendor’s services to the point that switching becomes costly or impractical. When you rely on a vendor’s platform, you often face proprietary data formats, APIs, and tightly integrated services, plus contract terms or exit penalties. Moving away can require data extraction and transformation, re-architecting workflows, retraining staff, and potential downtime, all of which make switching expensive. That ongoing dependence precisely captures why this option is the best fit.

The other terms describe different ideas: being denied access or prevented from using a system points to vendor lock-out, which isn’t about the cost of leaving. Application transfer risk and infrastructure transfer risk focus more on the mechanics and challenges of moving applications or infrastructure themselves, rather than the ongoing cost and difficulty created by long-term vendor dependence.