Past the primitives of file, disk, vm, and database storage there are only a handful of systems that would lock you in that would take an investment to back out of.
The luxury of having that problem is pretty nice too. The benefits of working off or with these tools is you can get something up and running way faster than owning the whole stack yourself. If the services are priced as a utility then theres no reason not to use them. If your business is running on margins that require better or different systems then thats predictable and you can just design for that.
> If the services are priced as a utility then theres no reason not to use them.
A company offering great prices now might chose to increase them later on when they have achieved market leader position and everyone is locked into their proprietary APIs. Don't assume that their offers will always remain as sweet as the bait candy that you taste right now.
Obviously thats an option but that option exists no matter the providers layer of abstraction. If you sell colo they can increase your prices. If they sell hardware you have to replace it. Im not arguing against it, just pointing out that there really arent situations where you eliminate that possibility; just reduce the chances of it.
The luxury of having that problem is pretty nice too. The benefits of working off or with these tools is you can get something up and running way faster than owning the whole stack yourself. If the services are priced as a utility then theres no reason not to use them. If your business is running on margins that require better or different systems then thats predictable and you can just design for that.