[LeifCarrotson]

It is not 10x cheaper, it is only cheaper to purchase initially.

It is cheaper to power (NAND is more energy efficient than an electric motor), it is cheaper to maintain (solid state media does not suffer mechanical failures), and it is cheaper to use (each query on an SSD takes slightly less time than on spinning media).

It's only 10x cheaper if you ignore those facts. Now, how you value those factors may vary. Also, I have been involved in enough purchasing decisions to know that while capex is easy to approve and opex is hard, the initial number is surprisingly important.

[sandworm101]

I think you overestimate the cost of electricity over the expected life of a drive. These arent space heaters. Pennies per day, adding up to perhaps tens of dollars difference between the two options.

[ksec]

I see, may be you should tell Blackblaze to switch over to SSD for their business model?

[LeifCarrotson]

Backblaze is in the backup industry, where fetch times don't really matter. When you have customers sensitive to app response time buying stuff, or engineers limited by how many times they can go through the edit-test cycle in 8 hours and "test" relies on how fast your media responds, then it matters.