Re: Why moving to the cloud is one the riskiest things your organisation can do...
Not exactly. The cloud isn't new technology--it's a new packaging of existing technology that is a lot like the really old packaging of similar technology. However, I don't think this story is really good evidence not to use the cloud. What it is is really good evidence to avoid lock in, but cloud doesn't necessarily mean lock in if done correctly and you can get lock in in other ways. For example, if you base too much of your systems on something the manufacturers can cut support for, you can find yourself unable to replace broken parts and looking at high costs for new equipment. Just like a cloud vendor dropping support for something, this can really mess up your day.
Cloud may not necessarily involve this. My cloud usage has almost always been running my own VMs without using provider-specific software, and I can move these VMs between providers if and when I want with time the primary cost. On the other hand, cloud has lots of options for getting locked in or becoming too reliant on something you don't control. For that reason, any good IT system will consider these risks and have backup plans. In many cases, the backup plan will be to not use those features and, if they're useful, implement them themselves. That is not a bad backup plan for most places.