While not directly comparable technologically the level of anti-self-hosting animus in this thread reminds me of what happens when someone shows it is perfectly possible and in many ways preferable to self-host mail services. I say to each his own, I do self-host all my services - no inference 'cause I don't see the need yet but if I ever do I will - and this has served me well for more than 30 years now. Others shy away from everything self-hosted, that's their choice and I assume they have their reasons which seem just as valid to them as mine are to me.

What I don't see mentioned by any of the outsourcing advocates here is the value of keeping your data out of the claws (pun intended) of commercial and governmental entities. It is hard to put a price tag on that but the difference between handling your own data and handing it over to those who specialise in mining as much information from it as they can is staggering no matter whether it is the family photo album, your startup's proposed business plans or the engineering department's design database.