That's the problem with depending on a "free" service.
Isn't that the most important lesson from all of this? Google cancels stuff willy-nilly (admittedly with decent notice). Other stuff disappears completely. Even paid services get acquired, merged, destroyed.
If you rely on a free web service for personal use, you could be in for a shock. If you rely on a free web service to run a business .... I don't want to buy shares of your company.
That said, I use gmail and Google calendar. I should know better....
What's the answer? I suppose I should say, "do it all yourself" but that can be a tall order, especially if you need to sync mobile devices or multiple operating systems. The truth is, I don't know of an easy answer.
I'd say "if you rely on a third-party web service with no alternatives or exit plans, then you're screwed whether you pay for it or not." Relying on a third-party email provider is pretty easy, just point your MX record at the new server, bam, you're migrated. Ok, so there's replication and actual migration, but the point is email is standard and you can pick and choose at will if one service goes away. You were making backups right? When LogMeIn, Google whatever, Facebook, etc, go belly up, get bought out, or just decide to shut off the service you like because it's not profitable, you're sunk because they are not standard.