> I'd love to hear from someone with expertise in vendor onboarding and business continuity risk: how do vendor contracts typically protect customers in situations like this?
The short answer: they generally don't, unless you negotiate for it. I run a company and dealing with this kind of situation (or better still anticipating it) is part of my job.
The Rockset situation generally falls under "termination for convenience" where a party of the contract terminates for reasons other than cause, e.g., bankruptcy or the other party violating contract terms. Taking the Rockset TOS as an instructive example, it covers customer's termination for convenience in Section 15.2. [0] However, there's nothing about Rockset terminating for convenience.
Normally this ambiguity could cause legal problems for the vendor, but Rockset added a 'get out of jail free card' in Section 2. They can just change the ToS.
> 2. Changes to Agreement or Services. Rockset may update this Agreement at any time, in its sole discretion. If Rockset does so, it will let Customer know either by posting the updated Agreement on the Site or through other communications. If Customer continues to use the Services after Rockset has posted updated Agreement, Customer agrees to be bound by the updated Agreement. Because the Services are evolving over time, Rockset may change or discontinue all or any part of the Services, at any time and without notice, at its sole discretion.
I am not a lawyer but (a) this is an awful contract for customers and (b) all is not lost. Your best recourse is to check with a lawyer to see if what footholds you can use (probably few), then make a public stink about destroying your data. I sincerely doubt the new owners will want to deal with that and will extend support.
The next time around, get a lawyer to help and negotiate terms. Pro tip: Smaller vendors are often more flexible, but all of them negotiate if they want the deal badly enough.
[0] https://rockset.com/legal/terms-of-service/