Very interesting insight! I may try building a scaled-down version just for fun. The cost comparison between raw drives, their custom solution, and Amazon S3,

Very interesting insight! I may try building a scaled-down version just for fun. The cost comparison between raw drives, their custom solution, and Amazon S3, etc was a little skewed. S3 is designed for pay as you go storage so you're not paying for capacity you don't need. If you just need a few dozen gigabytes, it's a much better deal. If you need terabytes or a petabyte, a dedicated storage solution is more economical. It's the same argument as vacation house vs timeshare. If you lived in a timeshare all year, it would cost more than buying the house.