Yup, I'm a bit fascinated that an entire industry is built on the drug dealer / puppy / loss-leader model -- "here; try this for a while for free; you'll like i

Yup, I'm a bit fascinated that an entire industry is built on the drug dealer / puppy / loss-leader model -- "here; try this for a while for free; you'll like it!" No question, it is easier to spin up an instance and ler them handle the scaling. And unless you are really careful, it's then very hard to extricate yourself and provision your own servers in a/multiple colo sites... I always like the control of vertical integration, but evidently enough like convenience to support a huge industry (and there are other advantages, but I don't think that cost is on the list of advantages)