The Caboteria / Tech Web / DiskStorageCost (29 Sep 2009, TobyCabot)
"Back in the day" I used to spec disk storage (e.g. EMC Symmetrix) for customers who paid around $1000/GB. Then I spent about 2 years away from the system sizing game. When I got back into the flow in Feb 2002 I looked around to figure out new rules of thumb for storage costs. On a continuum from cheap to pricey:

Here's a much more comprehensive look at this subject: http://www.mkomo.com/cost-per-gigabyte

Here's an interesting article about how the pros do large-scale cost-effective disk storage: http://blog.backblaze.com/2009/09/01/petabytes-on-a-budget-how-to-build-cheap-cloud-storage/

2004

typeSorted ascending amount cost $/GB source
high-end RAID (Sun 9970) 9TB $677k 73.5 Sun Store
mid-range RAID (Sun T3) 1321GB $98k 74 Sun Store
Raw IDE disk (Maxtor) 120GB $120 1 Compusa
SCSI Hotplug 146GB $500 3.5 Dell

Now high-end RAID is about 75 times more expensive than consumer-grade IDE (the difference used to be 25x). It's getting harder and harder to justify going with the big stuff, unless you really really need it.

2002

type amount cost $/GB source
Raw IDE disk (WD) 20GB $100 5 Staples
SCSI "shoebox" (Sun Multipack) 218GB $5650 26 Sun Store
low-end RAID (compaq 4100) 432GB $15k 36 Compaq website
mid-range RAID (Sun T3) 655GB $84k 128 Sun Store
high-end RAID (Sun 9960) 5800GB $730k 125 Sun Store
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