What is meant by 'vendor lock-in'?

Vendor lock-in refers to a situation where a customer becomes reliant on a specific cloud provider’s services, making it difficult to transition to another provider without incurring significant costs or difficulties. This dependency may arise due to various factors, such as proprietary technologies, unique features, or the need for migrating large volumes of data and applications. As a result, organizations may find themselves bound to the pricing, terms, and conditions of that single provider, limiting their flexibility in choosing alternative services in the future.

The other options do not capture the essence of vendor lock-in. For instance, automatically switching to a new provider does not illustrate the concept of dependency on one service provider. Similarly, being unable to use any cloud service does not reflect the nuances of vendor lock-in, as it implies an absence of all services rather than a reliance on one. Having multiple cloud service providers at once suggests a diversification of services, which is the opposite of the single-provider dependency described in vendor lock-in.