Xiotech comment
From Xiotech's Rob Peglar:-
In an otherwise interesting [story], I was surprised to find the lack of research and mention of the dozens of patents and R&D performed by companies like Seagate in the field of disk and disk enclosure vibration.
These patents date back to 1999 and before. While I certainly agree with the [original Usenix paper] author's hypothesis that rack-level vibration is to be minimized, he has ignored the work of making the storage enclosures themselves resistant to vibration, both internal and induced (harmonic).
In other words, focus on the enclosure itself, such as the work by Cunha et al on disk enclosures that significantly reduce vibration, so much so several patents have been awarded. Several of these patents and the inherent intellectual property within are embodied today in the Xiotech Intelligent Storage Element (ISE), so much so that the element is offered with a 5-year hardware warranty at zero cost.