LAMP

IF you are planning to design your own website, new proposed is LAMP. "LAMP" stands for : Linux(operating System), Apache(web server), MySQL(Database) and PHP/Perl/Python(client interaction). All are free here. So, the question of Horizontal scalability is achived. Linux can be CenOS, RedHat and Ubuntu. Apache can provide required Web Server. Out of 4 these, one or more can be replaced with vendor based apps like Windows can be used in place of Linux.