[Cialug] HW, anyone?

[Mike Hughes]

Speaking of hardware we're looking to buy a new storage device(s) with 30+TB capacity and high IOPS for databases & VMs. My dream would be to have the option to fill a hybrid system with the latest NVMe as we can afford them and stuff the rest with a couple rows of 2.5" HDDs for cold storage. 

We considered a BackBlaze Storage Pod (which are actually available if you contact BackupPods directly) but I was scared off by the SPOF introduced by the lack of dual controllers.

Does anyone have experience (good or bad) with building and maintaining a machine of this girth? Is it worth the hassle to avoid the vendor lock-in that the major players insist on?