Alternatives to Google services?

Inspired by this article "PSA: Don’t Mess With The Google!"

Link: http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/98444

Many of us started casually using gmail back in the days, and - with time - we have married google for email, contact, calendar, photos, files (drive) and much more. And it's a scary proposition that everything can be GONE with no or little notice or recourse.

While backing up can mitigate some of the risk, a better strategy would be to duplicate the functionality with paid services?

So, what are the best, affordable, alternative to:

- gmail/contact/calendar - Photos? I am assuming box and dropbox are good candidates - drive? I am assuming box and dropbox are good candidates