Don't forget the other half of this statement: I've always been concerned with basing a product on a locked-in technology from an unproven vendor.
And vendors do shut down. I've seen it happen many times. Sometimes they get eaten up by a "bigger fish" that wants to use their technology internally, and they then shut down the external service you were so fond of.
Author here: In our case the vendor was very proven, but the tech and their approach to it was not. What actually happened is a bit more complicated than _abandoned_, but those words got the point across without delving into the irrelevant.
Needless to say, I am _very_ leery now of the motives of open-source products that aren't run like open-source projects.
Don't forget the other half of this statement: I've always been concerned with basing a product on a locked-in technology from an unproven vendor.
And vendors do shut down. I've seen it happen many times. Sometimes they get eaten up by a "bigger fish" that wants to use their technology internally, and they then shut down the external service you were so fond of.