Yev from Backblaze here -> Most of our purchasing is done through distributors. We'd love to buy direct at some point, but for now we have good manufacturer/distributor relationships! We're getting there though!

There is a simple fix - become a distributor. I worked for local European distributors that moved less merchandise per year and had direct relationships with Samsung/Fujitsu/IBM/WD/Seagate (you can tell it was a long time ago :P).

We've batted the idea around :P

Do you mean the storage pod? You want to look at https://www.backblaze.com/blog/open-source-data-storage-serv... and https://www.backuppods.com/