The explosive growth and endless optimism came crashing to an end in October 2011, when Google started charging heavy users. Light users could still get the services for free, but everyone else was going to pay to support the big map in the sky. It wasn’t as tragic as it might seem, but Google’s decision was one of the first to signal the end of totally free era.
While some groused, others saw opportunity. Before the price change, everyone was happy to let the big companies do the hard work because no one wanted to compete with a free service from Google. Why pay for what you could get for free? The new prices were steep enough to open the door to competition, making it possible for new companies to get traction.
These new stacks use liberal amounts of open source software mixed with proprietary tools and services. You do what you want on your own and pay for what you can’t do. Open source licenses give you the control. While some will still grouse about not getting everything for free, there’s no doubt the new marketplace offers many more options and opportunities than before.