Commoditization is the shift by which a technology or process becomes standardized, broadly acceptable, and available with less need for in-house management. For organizational planning, it matters because foundational capabilities may mature into services that are easier to adopt and maintain than to build internally. section 3.4.3
When a foundational capability begins moving toward commoditization:
- Watch how its role, innovation, competition, and acceptability evolve before incorporating the change into long-term plans. section 3.4.3
- Distinguish foundational shifts from disruptive changes to frameworks or languages; they do not carry the same strategic weight. section 3.4.3
- Use a small splinter team for a few days to investigate a narrow question and provide evidence for a pivot decision. section 3.4.3
- Design systems to tolerate change so that adopting a more commoditized foundation can remain relatively seamless. section 3.4.3
Database services replace internal clusters
Web servers and mail servers became broadly accepted examples of commoditized infrastructure. Databases followed when maintaining an internal cluster became more costly than buying database-as-a-service, moving backups, optimization, and failover from a dedicated DBA team to browser-based operations. The trade-off is a perceived loss of control in exchange for removing a substantial management burden. section 3.4.3
Software commoditization and workforce change
During the early internet period, competing web servers, messaging servers, and utility libraries gradually encountered standardization and incorporation into larger open source frameworks. Companies whose business depended on those components could lose their market and release entire engineering groups, while other companies gained experienced teams. section 7.3.1
