There should exist an option that is between those spectrum endpoints. One that runs a lot more free (inspectable, trustworthy) software than present cloud services. One that leaves some control with the owner of the data.
There does - in fact, there exists every single percentage of difference between servers-in-bedroom to full-Azure/AWS. We run full AWS. The company one floor up runs their own OpenStack private cloud on colocated servers in a Level 3 facility. Want to rent and not own? You can have that, too. Softlayer is somewhere in-between there.
There exists just about every price point and combination of services you can imagine. It's awesome, too, because I can grow a business and can enter into the market with a whole "rack" of servers for almost no cost at all.
