Chapter 2: Upsun and the decades of the open web

From 1995 to 2025, the evolution of the web has been marked by distinct phases, each characterized by shifts in technology and business models. Initially, the web democratized computing, enabling peer-to-peer interactions and the rise of open-source software, while large corporations maintained one-way communication with the public. During this period, Linux and PHP gained prominence, leading to a boom in startups with low entry costs. The next decade saw the rise of centralized social media, mobile internet, and server virtualization, with platforms like AWS facilitating this shift. Git and GitHub revolutionized software collaboration, while frameworks and DevOps tools like Rails and Ansible emerged to enhance productivity and scalability. The most recent decade has been dominated by SaaS solutions, microservices, and cloud computing, resulting in increased operational complexity and the development of Observability-as-a-Service. Kubernetes rose as a key deployment tool, and data layers became isolated, with machine learning and AI models gaining traction. As platform engineering becomes more critical, organizations are exploring composable solutions, balancing the use of SaaS, APIs, and AI-assisted coding to navigate the complexities of modern software architecture.

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