Backblaze isn't selling their custom server racks to third parties to make a profit... they built their own initially because they were trying to make it as cheap as humanly possible and cut a ton of corners to get there. They had a ton of growing pains too which is why we're on POD version 6.0, soon to be 7.0. They modified as they ran into hurdles, most of which would've been avoided going with one of the major server vendors. On the flip side, they would have spent a TON more money on features they decided they didn't need, and their business model likely wouldn't have been viable with that overhead.
I HIGHLY doubt Oxide is offering to make small batch custom servers as part of their "bring the cloud on-prem". It's FAR more likely they're talking about taking OCP designs and adding their own software management stack on top.
I HIGHLY doubt Oxide is offering to make small batch custom servers as part of their "bring the cloud on-prem". It's FAR more likely they're talking about taking OCP designs and adding their own software management stack on top.