Katrin Goethals, Nextcloud:
You might have heard of vendor lock-in: the practice of being dependent on a closed ecosystem. It doesn’t only cause spiraling licensing fees, little to no app compatibility, but also frustrating difficulties in migrating platforms.
And in 2026, there’s an additional problem: organizations aren’t locked into one specific vendor, but instead rely on dozens of different disconnected platforms. Their digital information lives across various closed systems, each with its own setup. This is commonly called vendor sprawl.
You are questioning: is that happening to my team too? Just think of your team’s everyday workload. From project management to time tracking or editing documents, are they using a dozen SaaS tools to keep their tasks organized, often from various vendors? If yes, the result is fragmented systems, duplicated data, and inconsistent security models.
In short, by working with so many vendors, you get caught in vendor sprawl, ultimately leading to a loss of visibility and control of your digital infrastructure.