EU Commissioner Warns IT Buyers Against Vendor Lock-In

European Commissioner Neelie Kroes warned governments and businesses to avoid vendors that try to lock them in with proprietary technology.

"Choosing open standards is a very smart business decision," she said June 10 at a conference in Brussels organized by Open Forum Europe. "Public and private procurers of technology should be smart and build their systems as much as possible on standards that everybody can use and implement without constraints," she said, adding that this is good for the bottom line because it promotes competition between suppliers and prevents vendor lock-in. She asked vendors to act now to make their products interoperable with those of their competitors, and not to wait for a court to force them.