Open Source as a viable alternative
Online Open Source tools have become genuinely viable alternatives to their proprietary cousins. In fact the most popular web server Apache is open source and MySQL is amongst the most widely used databases online.
For more information on Open Source Application Stacks you can visit Wikipedias LAMP page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAMP_(software_bundle)
These open source tools are reliable and in wide use, the web and open source go hand in hand, likely because the Internet provides an excellent platform for collaboration and community building.
Whilst they are not the only platform delivery option, as a Thirdway Web provider these low risk cost saving approaches should be firmly on the agenda.
In fact there are often commercial reasons for not going open source, but even if this is the case the OS approach has helped keep costs down in less obvious ways.
For some time now OS technology has acted as a BATNA Best alternative to a negociated agreement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_alternative_to_a_negociated_agreement), acting as a workable alternative to the commercial offerings and therefore keeping check on software prices.
We therefore find that there are a large number of very competitively priced commercial online applications that can provide excellent one stop shops for those needing web tools.