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A. New head node

Dedicated chassis,
(1 U)
$3,000,

One of four (a Quad), in one chassis.
(2U)

Consider Option 2 for cost savings (if any).
To do: Calculate cost savings (if any, considering ).
Any other considerations, such as risk or recovery challenges?
Note 1: Head node has lower proc, lower memory, and 256 GB SSD drive for (OS and applications).
Note 2: Price for Option 1 includes a large drive 4T "WD black" for temp. user data (~$2,700+$250)

B. New storage machine

Synology-branded dedicated storage array.
To do: What connector? Stay with ethernet (iSCSI or NFS)?

Home-brewed dedicated storage array, perhaps running OpenNAS software.

Consider Option 2 for cost savings (if any).
BUT, must also consider risk, support, and staffing effort.
To do: What connector? If ethernet: iSCSI (all compute node writes through head node) or NFS (theoretically could be accessible by compute nodes)? If not ethernet, what connector technology, at what price and complexity?

C. New computational nodes node

8 nodes (in 2 Quads), with higher computational processors.
Each node: 2 * E5-26700v2; 2.5GHz, 10 cores/ proc (thus, 20 cores/ node).

16 nodes (in 4 Quads), with standard computational processors.
Each node: 2 * E5-26200v2; 2.1GHz, 6 cores/ proc (thus, 12 cores/ node).

Consider Option 2 for doubling the increasing number of compute nodes, even if each has slightly cores from 160 to 192, but with slower set of processors.
For either choice, to do: Storage: Fast or large? Or both?
Note: Buying in multiples of 4 (Quads) is most cost-effective.

D. Arrange an efficient back-up plan

EZ-Backup

(At current quantities of backed-up data, ChemIT cannot recommend an alternative.)

On-going to do: Evaluate cost-effectiveness as volume grows. At current TB's of backup, costs are as were predicted (no surprises), and thus were at the time considered to be affordable and cost-effective compared to investing in own hardware and staffing.