Most likely I found it on Engadget, but it did crop-up in quite a few other places. I am of course talking about the Backblaze blog post ‘Petabytes on a budget: How to build cheap cloud storage‘.
When I found this, I thought it was fantastic – 45 drives and a host in a single case. If anything was ever going to be perfect for me, this was it!
In the first post, Backblaze were kind enough to detail all the parts used and make available a 3D model of the enclosure. This was great for the community, but in a follow-up post they directed readers as to where they could order the enclosure from directly – Protocase.
As their website directed, I emailed them straight off to get a quote. $872 – wow, way more than I was expecting. On top of this, it would have to be shipped from Canada, adding to the price substantially. Dismayed with that outcome, I thought it was the end of the matter, but Protocase emailed me a few days later asking for feedback.
As you do (or at least as I do), I replied with a 250 word rant as to how expensive it was compared to products such as the Norco RPC-4020, which was a mete $280. It must have be somewhat interesting, as I got an even longer reply direct from the Chairman addressing each of my points.
Needless to say, I didn’t go forward and purchase one of these cases, instead using the concept to design my own.
In my next post I will talk about the design along with how and why it differs from the Backblaze storage pod.