Reversibility
From Wiki for Sustainable IT
Reversibility is the ability to change supplier, solution or hosting without prohibitive cost or difficulty.
It is not established by a contract clause. It is established by testing.
Conditions
- open, documented formats for data and configuration ;
- complete export: data, metadata, history and permissions, not only the primary records ;
- no adhesion to supplier-specific services in application code ;
- a real test: an untested reversibility clause is worth little ;
- internal skills sufficient to take over.
Why it matters
Reversibility is the practical counter to vendor lock-in and a precondition for sovereignty. It is also a matter of resilience: a supplier may disappear, raise prices or change terms.
It must be built before signing. Afterwards it is generally too late.
