Can you say what vendor you are using now?
However, instead of buying exclusively supermicro from them, we are now buying these Hitachi 60bay JBODs:
http://www.hgst.com/products/platforms/4U60G2-storage-platfo...
It really bugs that supermicro went this way. They used to be a very boring company that did nothing but build great chassis. I used to jokingly say that "supermicro is the rsync.net of hardware".
But now they're getting cute and that's never a good sign.
Hitachi is NOT HGST.
/Pet peeve
//Used to work for HGST alongside the EMEA 4U60 team, so perhaps a bit sensitive!
///Was often asked to help move the damn things on/off trolleys when the fully-loaded demo units came back for refresh before going out again - it was a 4-person lift with under-unit webbed straps - I'm sure my spine was compressed and I left the job a couple of cm shorter!
Maybe they have gone too large and now have to explore the same tactics from other big companies, like you mentioned. That seems the most plausible explanation.