Most debates about cloud architecture focus on the wrong question. Teams argue over which database or identity provider is best for their workload. The better question is, how hard will this be to change in three years?
Teams treat certain foundational choices as technical decisions they can revisit later. It won’t be that simple. By the time you realize a choice has become permanent, changing it means rebuilding systems that already work.
In this edition, I’ll walk you through four decisions that fall into this category more often than teams expect.
Your database engine looks swappable
Most debates about cloud architecture focus on the wrong question. Teams argue over which database or identity provider is best for their workload. The better question is, how hard will this be to change in three years?
- Vendor Lock-in: Moving from one proprietary database to another requires massive schema migrations.
- Performance Tuning: What works for a document store might cripple a relational database.
- Data Gravity: As your data grows, the sheer cost and time to move it becomes a barrier.
Teams treat certain foundational choices as technical decisions they can revisit later. It won’t be that simple. By the time you realize a choice has become permanent, changing it means rebuilding systems that already work.
