How are cloud computing and outsourcing similar?

Cloud computing and outsourcing share the characteristic of vendor lock-in, where a business becomes dependent on a specific provider for services, making it challenging to switch to another vendor without incurring significant costs or complexities. In both scenarios, once an organization commits to a particular provider, migrating to another service can be difficult due to the proprietary technologies, integrations, and training required.

For cloud computing, this is often seen when organizations rely on specific cloud platforms for their applications and data, and they face challenges in transitioning to a different cloud provider due to compatibility issues, costs associated with data migration, or the need to retrain staff on new systems. Similarly, in outsourcing arrangements, businesses may find themselves entangled with a vendor's specific processes, tools, or ecosystems, creating hurdles when trying to change vendors or bring services back in-house.

The other options do address various aspects of cloud computing and outsourcing but do not directly capture this shared risk of becoming reliant on a specific provider. Immediate scalability refers to the ability to quickly adjust resources as needed, which can be a function of both models but is not a similarity inherent to them. Long contract renegotiation discusses the challenges of modifying agreements, which is more related to typical vendor relationships rather than a shared characteristic of cloud and