DailyDirt: Will This Problem Ever Go Away?

A common complaint for closed source software-as-a-service is that it can just go away almost any minute -- leaving users abandoned without any immediate backup solutions. There might be alternatives to switch to, but the alternatives are not exactly the same, and this is why people complained so much when [GeoCities, Google Reader, FormsCentral, etc.] shut down. Users get accustomed to certain features that may be unique. Some companies are better at handling service shutdowns than others, but in the end, it's still really annoying.

• Apple acquired FoundationDB, and the support of its distributed database software will abruptly end. Users can still continue to use the software they've downloaded already, but there won't be much help if there's a problem. [url]
• Xeround suddenly shut down its database as a service business in 2013, giving paying customers just 2 weeks notice to migrate their data. At least Xeround's service was based on scaling MySQL, but no one likes to have to move large scale databases in just a couple of weeks. [url]
• A really easy-to-use database service called Dabble DB shut down after the team behind it was hired by Twitter. They gave users 60 days notice before shutting down, but nothing exactly like it seems to exist anymore. [url]

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