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Build Your Own $2.8M Petabyte Disk Array For $117k

Chris Pirazzi writes "Online backup startup BackBlaze, disgusted with the outrageously overpriced offerings from EMC, NetApp and the like, has released an open-source hardware design showing you how to build a 4U, RAID-capable, rack-mounted, Linux-based server using commodity parts that contains 67 terabytes of storage at a material cost of $7,867. This works out to roughly $117,000 per petabyte, which would cost you around $2.8 million from Amazon or EMC. They have a full parts list and diagrams showing how they put everything together. Their blog states: 'Our hope is that by sharing, others can benefit and, ultimately, refine this concept and send improvements back to us.'"

15 of 487 comments (clear)

  1. It's all clear now. by grub · · Score: 4, Funny


    AHhh, this is why the EMC guy committed suicide. It wasn't because he was dying of cancer.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  2. My math is a bit rusty... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    ...but that doesn't add up. $7,867 / 67 petabytes = $117.42/petabyte, not $117,000/petabyte.

    Perhaps they were using the 'new' math.

  3. Re:My plan comes to fruition! by ShadowRangerRIT · · Score: 3, Funny

    But what about storing the new episodes in HD? Clearly a masterpiece of TV such as this should not be stored at mere SD quality!

    --
    $_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
  4. Re:My plan comes to fruition! by RMH101 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think we have a new metric unit of storage, to rival the (now deprecated) Library Of Congress SI unit.

  5. Re:You know why Amazon charges that much? by bytethese · · Score: 5, Funny

    For the 2.683M difference, that support better come with a "happy ending" for the entire staff...

  6. Re:My plan comes to fruition! by ari_j · · Score: 5, Funny

    Soon I shall have a single media server with every episode of "General Hospital" ever made stored at a high bitrate. WHO'S LAUGHING NOW, ALL YOU WHO DOUBTED ME!!!!

    And how big is a petabyte you ask? There have been about 12,000 episodes of General Hospital aired since 1963. If you encoded 45 minute episodes at DVD quality mpeg2 bitrate, you could fit over 550,000 episodes of America's finest television show on a 1 petabyte server, enough to archive every episode of this remarkable show from its auspicious debut in 1963 until the year 4078.

    Of all the computer systems out there, yours is the one for which becoming self-aware terrifies me the most.

  7. Or wait 5 years and buy it at newegg for $280 by dicobalt · · Score: 2, Funny

    and save $2,799,720.

  8. Re:You know why Amazon charges that much? by drooling-dog · · Score: 4, Funny

    Damn. I was going to offer support for half of that price until I saw this new requirement...

  9. Re:My plan comes to fruition! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    But we already have William Shatner.

  10. Re:You know why Amazon charges that much? by machine321 · · Score: 3, Funny

    For 2.683M, you can probably afford to outsource that part.

  11. Re:My plan comes to fruition! by Junior+J.+Junior+III · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm holding out for the porn version, Genital Horse Spittle.

    Great donkey scenes.

    --
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  12. Re:You know why Amazon charges that much? by MadKeithV · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just make sure the wife doesn't catch you unit testing the outsourced part.

  13. Re:You know why Amazon charges that much? by NotBornYesterday · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Sorry, I have to stay late tonight honey, ... I'm hard at work."

    --
    I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
  14. Re:You know why Amazon charges that much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Our support model is close to that. We give you the lube, then we tell you to $&%* yourselves.

  15. Re:they are missing hardware mgmt by BobMcD · · Score: 2, Funny

    And speaking of sexy, sports cars, and Sun, there is one huge factor that sets apart the purchase decisions -

    Sun has nothing on Ferrari for getting you laid.