Same Stack, Different Hoodie. Every AI agent vendor is building the same architecture we invented decades ago. The only real question is where they want to own YOU.
The five layers have different lock-in mechanisms and they are not equally durable.
Data layer lock-in is inherited from existing platforms like Snowflake or Databricks. The agent vendor does not create it, they just attach to it.
Connectivity lock-in is weaker where protocols like MCP are adopted, because standardisation pushes that layer toward portability, though proprietary connectors and permission models still create friction.
The durable bet is orchestration, where lock-in is earned through workflow dependency. Teams build policies, audit rules, and agent logic around an orchestrator's abstractions, and that is genuinely hard to unwind.
Vendors fighting over connector counts are fighting for margins. Vendors competing on workflow stickiness are competing for the next decade.
You are spot on H. Floyd on The Who owns the ‘toll booths’ on the ‘toll road’, and I actually address that in the third article that drops on Thursday morning. The truth is depending on your path and architecture pattern of your stack(s) you may have many toll booths on your toll road. :-)
Yeah, that’s what I think’s interesting. It’s not always one big obvious lock-in. It’s all the small dependencies that build up around the system until changing direction becomes much harder than expected.
The five layers have different lock-in mechanisms and they are not equally durable.
Data layer lock-in is inherited from existing platforms like Snowflake or Databricks. The agent vendor does not create it, they just attach to it.
Connectivity lock-in is weaker where protocols like MCP are adopted, because standardisation pushes that layer toward portability, though proprietary connectors and permission models still create friction.
The durable bet is orchestration, where lock-in is earned through workflow dependency. Teams build policies, audit rules, and agent logic around an orchestrator's abstractions, and that is genuinely hard to unwind.
Vendors fighting over connector counts are fighting for margins. Vendors competing on workflow stickiness are competing for the next decade.
You are spot on H. Floyd on The Who owns the ‘toll booths’ on the ‘toll road’, and I actually address that in the third article that drops on Thursday morning. The truth is depending on your path and architecture pattern of your stack(s) you may have many toll booths on your toll road. :-)
Yeah, that’s what I think’s interesting. It’s not always one big obvious lock-in. It’s all the small dependencies that build up around the system until changing direction becomes much harder than expected.
Looking forward to the Thursday piece!