22 Sep
2004
22 Sep
'04
2:35 p.m.
Well, let's see here: 73GB / 5GB at the $9.95
level = about
14 subscriptions = $140 per month so they break even in 3
months. Not bad.
True, but after adding the cost of the processors that manage those drives
(SAN or otherwise), plus networking hardware, a little bandwidth, and a few
headcount to keep it all glued together, it's an impressive achievement.
You have to work hard to keep all that overhead from eroding your margins
quickly.
Maybe they're just doing it dirt cheap
Google-style: just
throw a huge number of cheap hard drives at the problem and
use lots of mirroring. If one fails, throw it out and
replace it, then re-mirror.
It would have to be. I guess the real question is, what's controlling those
drives. At the scale at which I'm used to buying hardware, I think it
wouldn't play. Google-scale buying power is my geek wet dream.
One thing seems certain: they oversubscribe. That alone may be the answer.
Patrick