Unequivocal, compelling.
The Business Case.

What the business case is really about

Lower vendor lock-in risk. Solid’s central idea is that data is kept separate from any one app, so a business is less exposed if an app is replaced or a vendor changes terms.

Lower change cost over time. If apps consume data through a common model rather than owning it, you can change one application without rewriting every dependent integration. That is the core business case Inrupt makes for Solid.

Better portability and continuity. Data remains useful across systems, which helps with mergers, app replacement, and internal platform changes.

Potentially simpler architecture for some use cases. Microservices and micro-server approaches can improve agility and scaling, but the evidence is mixed and workload-dependent rather than universally superior.

Selected findings on lock-in and portability

• A BCG study reported that 62% of IT buyers are concerned about lock-in with digital platforms.
• In the same study, firms reported major switching concerns: 75% technical migration risk, 64% productivity loss, and 63% downtime.
• BCG also found 77% of firms prefer to retain their own data model rather than adopt platform-native models.
• A cloud portability paper says portability is important because, without it, switching providers can become impossible in practice.
• Google’s own portability material says data portability helps customers build flexibility and operational resilience into cloud strategy.